Saturday Audience Participation - New Year's Edition
1) Are you hungover?
2) If yes to (1), can you please explain why many consider having a good time synonymous with getting drunk?
3) Anyone else annoyed that in Times Square and on all the major broadcasts (Fox, NBC, ABC), the "New Year's Song" was played for only about 30 seconds, then quickly switched to Sinatra's New York, New York. Are they getting rid of the ball drop next?
24 comments:
Guilty, Onestdv. I took a sleeping tablet (temazepam, though it wasn't a large dosage) and washed it down with close to 3/4 of a bottle of vodka, but I guess this can be extenuated, as I was at a fairly boring event. I made sure to hydrate myself and took a b-vitamin tablet before sleeping in order assuage the hangover I was bound to recieve the next morning, which seems to have worked out fairly well. As for being tantamount to having fun, I'd have to say that this has often been the case for me, unfortunately.
If yes to (1), can you please explain why many consider having a good time tantamount to getting drunk?
It's a Northern European thing, you wouldn't understand.
1) No. Drank a couple of beers while making dinner and most of a bottle of wine with dinner, but I quit at about 8 p.m.
2) Some people reach a state of optimal intoxication after which further drinking only makes them feel worse. For others, each new drink feels better than the last, right up until you keel over. I belong to this latter cohort, but who needs the hangover. Anon's probably right, statistically it's a northern European thing.
3)I watched the midnight fireworks (that's what we do in my corner of northern Europe) from my living room window, then hit the sack. Couldn't even be bothered to go up on the roof with the wife and kid. Hard to get revved up about whether they played the Scots dirge or the paean to New York after the ball dropped in Times Square.
I didn't drink last night, but I did eat a bunch of non-paleo crap.
Seems to me that young people get drunk in crowds because it's fun to be loopy, plus they think they're immortal. When older people get drunk, they either have an alcohol problem or are using it to deal with social anxiety / boredom / wanting to be somewhere else.
As far as New Year's traditions go, I'm old enough to be accustomed to seeing the 18-30 year olds who drive our mass culture discard or adulterate everything that I considered a "tradition" when I was 18-30 years old.
Oh, and happy new year! Your blog has become one of my regular stops, and I for one don't want you to dumb it down in any effort to sound less "nerdy."* (Whatever that means.)
*This is in reference to a comment on yesterday's post.
can anyone tell ME when the vile nihilistic dirge "Imagine" became the new years eve song?!?!?!
HNY onestdv--ty for your great blog
1) No, I went out last night but did not drink.
2) If there weren't consequences, we wouldn't know when to stop.
3) Do you mean "Auld Lang Syne"?
I got drunk, but if you want to minimize the hangover effect you have to stick with better liquor - this is especially this case with Vodka.
Grey Goose with cranberry was the drink of choice last night.
I was in Santa Monica last night getting drunk and having fun. I just woke up to check my email and decided to check out my favorite blog before I go to the rose bowl!! go badgers!!!
No hangover and I did not watch any of the network specials.
1) just some Champagne with dinner. Fireworks, neighbors cheering, etc, woke me up at 12.
2) Being a little drunk can be great fun, with a group of friends, as long as they are all people who know their limits. No sloppy drunks. I'm in the 'get to a certain point and then any subsequent drink feels worse' cohort another poster described, so I've only been really drunk a few times in my life. Swedish, German, English, Scottish ancestry. So I guess it *is* a Northern European thing.
3) I don't watch those broadcasts, but I also decry the eclipse of yet another traditional element of celebration. Auld Lang Syne is a great song.
I was very happy to find a station on my satellite radio that had nothing but Christmas pop songs from the 1940s-60s (plenty of Johnny Mathis, Andy WIlliams, Harry Simeone, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby - you get the idea), to go with the usual classical channels I listen to, which had all of the really traditional Christmas music. Not a single note from Mariah Carey or Jessica Simpson was heard!
Happy New Year to all.
I had several drinks and walked home from the friends' house after the party. About a mile. The walk in cold air oxygenated my brain and I had no hangover today.
The TV celebrations showed over-the-top hip-hop acts. I started a mock drinking game: drink every time Lil Wayne grabs his dick. There were also a few enjoyable emo band performances, and Avril Lavigne twice. I concluded that Avril Lavigne is the hottest female singer alive.
I don't think I'm _much_ more introverted than other people from my age (early twenties), so I would figure most of them get drunk for the same reasons I do: I dance better and get better with the ladies.
I'm 75% Northern European, and I ain't hungover, didn't get drunk, don't ever drink, have never been drunk. So I guess I am the exception to the rule.
:)
I heard more than a few stories about the tipplers in my family tree before I was of drinking age. That, plus the fact that alcoholic beverages all taste awful to me (seriously, it's not even a "food taste" ... it tastes like something man was not meant to drink), made it easy for me to avoid the temptations of the bottle.
On the other hand, reading about the relaxing effects of light tippling I can see why people would want to feel that way, particularly when there are drunks around.
Tongue-in-cheek aside: How can anyone afford to drink? Oh, right, most people make more money than I do. Plus a lot of people don't have to figure in ammo costs.
I drank five beers over the course of the evening at the various bars and restaurants I was at with friends, but it was so spaced out that I didn't even get buzzed, much less drunk. No hangover either, although I did hydrate before bed. I generally don't aim to get drunk or buzzed. I like the taste of good beer as well as the social aspect, but usually stop at about 2-3 beers. Last night was exceptional, but still, no drunkenness.
It's a Northern European thing
Scandinavians (except Danes) all banned alcohol around the same time as the USA, 1910s-1920s. Iceland was the holdout, banning beer till 1989.
In the USA, Prohibition was supported mostly by Colonial-Stock Protestants [Northern-European origin] and Scandinavians. It was derailed by Sicilians and Joseph Kennedy.
Considering the relatively small amount of responses to this thread, I imagine most people are answering yes to question (1).
Northern European-ancestry guy here. No, I didn't have a hangover this morning. But then, I don't get hangovers at all. I seem to be immune to them. In any event, I haven't drunk to falling-down excess in over 20 years. Beyond a certain "tipsy" point, drinking stops being fun for me. I've found that mixing small amounts of oxycodone and marijuana with moderate drinking makes for a much better buzz anyway. (Not that I do that very often. 5 or 6 times a year.)
Sheesh, of course I got drunk and suffered from a hangover. Do you know of a better way to come down from coke???
1) No.
2) See preceding.
3) No. I not only don't drink alcohol, I don't watch TV. I have a much better quality of life and health without them.
Happy New Year to you, OneSTDV, and may 2011 be the year you finally become a true conservative. ;)
B Lode said, "How can anyone afford to drink? Oh, right, most people make more money than I do. Plus a lot of people don't have to figure in ammo costs."
Do you cast your own bullets or at least do your own reloading?
Much as I hate to admit it, I don't reload. In my defense, I don't shoot much either.
:(
I do have my own reloading manual and a real live workbench. Once the ol' bank account stabilizes a little bit (after taxes), I'm going to get at least a shotgun press and maybe an everything-else press. I will probably cast bullets too as I have both a weapon that eats 38 S&W and one that eat only 38 Special - while the cases are different, they can both digest the same bullets if they are all lead.
My wife ordered me not to tell her if I was shooting any handloads until I have been doing it for a year and not blown up. She is wise. She could probably tolerate a drinking husband OR a shooting husband ... not sure the poor dear could tolerate a drinking, shooting, handloading husband.
Anyone else annoyed that in Times Square and on all the major broadcasts (Fox, NBC, ABC), the "New Year's Song" was played for only about 30 seconds, then quickly switched to Sinatra's New York, New York. Are they getting rid of the ball drop next?
I don't watch the new years shows, but this fits with a pet peeve of mine. All of the broadcasters are in NYC, and are deeply in love with themselves for being there. It brings to mind the time a few years back where the little dears in NYC had to go without power for a while. We were treated to wall to wall coverage of the "event" while the anchors congratulated each other on their courage. Someone gets a parking ticket in NYC or LA and it is national news...
Eh, a little bit of a late response but yes I was quite hungover. What else would one expect from someone who's only been 21 for a month and a half!
And drinking is fun because it allows me to socially relax, plus I don't do it that often so there is the novelty factor too.
Just wanted to say Happy New Year, keep up the blog. I read it a few times a week and even if I disagree sometimes I always enjoy the content.
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