The other half can’t imagine how that could be possible.
Bringing to mind that great folk song:
“An Irishman, I am, I am, I drinks me Irish booze …
and if you don’t like me Irish song, I’ll throw up on your shoes!”
By the way, I hate to disappoint my fellow stereotypists, but the Irish do not lead the world in per capita alcohol consumption, despite their best efforts. Pussies. They drink a lot, but not as much as Czechs or Germans. They also trail behind Lithuania and Moldova, and consume about the same amount of alcohol as the French or most Eastern Europeans.
Do you know why there are so few Irish lawyers? It’s because they can’t pass a bar.
Woodlawn, the very Irish neighborhood I grew up in the Bronx, has a stretch of one avenue with something like 8 bars spread out over 3 blocks. When I was a kid, a funeral parlor was renovated into another bar and my mother tried to get petitions signed to deny them a liquor license because she thought there were already too many bars. I thought that was silly, because it seemed unlikely the bar would draw many new drinkers to the neighborhood. Instead, I thought they would just take business from the bars already there. But despite her efforts that bar was able to open and is still in business as far as I know, as is at least one additional bar that has opened since.
Myself, I’m a social drinker without a social life (and I was one even before the pandemic). I had a drink at a Memorial Day BBQ and I think that was the first one I’ve had this year. I drank more when I was younger, particularly when I was in college and law school. But at one point in my late 30’s I just realized that if I had more than 1 or 2 drinks I felt like crap the next day. So these days I mostly stick to diet pepsi.
I have to say that I don’t get drinking at home, alone. Drinking with friends, or even with strangers, is great fun in a lively club or pub, and it’s fun to hold a dinner party at home with a hand-picked guest list and get everybody well lubricated, but boozin’ it up at home in isolation is kinda sad.
No offense. I understand that the world sucks right now and people have different ways to get through it.
I wish you and your lads much luck in your quest to out-drink those Moldovan commie wimps. The free world is counting on you. I know you can do it.
We may lag per person, however, we have a sizable population that don’t partake of drink, if you take them out, we are No 1!!!
Being honest I can’t wait for the pubs to open again, I’ll be able to cut down on the drinking, you have to be able to talk to people in a pub, you can pass out at home.