Wine and Spirits

A couple weeks ago, while waiting to pick a friend up, I spent about 20 minutes parked in front of a liquor store. Despite the temperature being 22 degrees (and much colder with the wind chill), quite a few people entered the business to obtain some "spirits". They typically went in with an intent look on their face. As they exited a few minutes later, I noticed they appeared a bit more relaxed. In my mind, they were thinking one of two things: "One less errand to worry about" or "In 60 minutes, I'll be partying like there's no tomorrow".

One conclusion I reached is that those 24-packs look pretty heavy. If I was a regular boozer, I'd get, like, 200 cans so that I wouldn't have to keep going back every week for reinforcements. One of the reasons I don't drink beer is because having to urinate every 45 minutes just doesn't justify the buzz I would get from it. Maybe if I could just get the alcohol without all the barley and shit.

There's a reason why straight alcohol doesn't taste good: because it's not good for you. I'm of the belief that years of alcohol use leads to one gradually becoming, well, less smart. If you go to a bar, what is the average IQ, I wonder.

And if it's low, is it because the people were less smart to begin with or did the use of booze lead to a steady decline in smarts? Perhaps this view is rubbish, but the body sure doesn't seem to like having booze in it: as alcohol acts upon one's brain, the body is furiously working to remove it.

A decade ago, I worked with three developmentally disabled chaps who, when given a can of O'Doul's, started acting drunk within ten minutes of their first sip. This makes me wonder: if you gave people in a bar non-alcoholic drinks that smelled like alcohol, would the power of suggestion make them think they were drinking the real thing?