The Lancet, a premier medical journal, printed a comment by Sir David Spiegelhalter, Winston Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge about the contention that there is “no safe level of drinking alcohol”: “…There is no ‘safe’ level of driving, but governments do not recommend that people avoid driving. Come to think of it, there is no safe level of living, but nobody would recommend abstention.” (p. 217)
Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization is basically the history of alcoholic beverages. Edward Slingerland points out the pervasiveness of alcohol in most of the world’s civilizations and religious. With a few exceptions, alcohol can be found in most human activities like parties, sports events, and weddings. And Jesus Christ’s first miracle was turning water into wine.
Of course, there are down-sides to alcohol. “Alcohol is the only drug, besides pure stimulants like meth, that is known to increase physical aggression and violence. Cannabis, kava, MDMA, and psychedelics all produce either mellow or introverted highs. Alcohol’s stimulated effect, when combined with cognitive myopia and loss of executive function, can induce aggressive or violent behavior, especially in people with already low levels of cognitive control.” (p. 249)
I’m not a big consumer of alcoholic products. About a decade ago, my doctor suggested that I drink one glass of red wine each day to protect my heart. I took his advice and so far so good. I’m not fond of beer. Once in a while I’ll have a mixed drink, usually something with rum in it. Not a fan of gin or vodka. The research continues on the pluses and minuses of alcoholic consumption. But, as Drunk points out, alcoholic consumption is going to continue as long as humans are around. GRADE: A
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
1 Why Do We Get Drunk? 17
Brain Hijack: Porn and Sexually Starved Fruit Flies 23
Evolutionary Hangovers: Drunken Monkeys, Liquid Kimchee, and Dirty Water 27
More Than Twinkles and Porn: Beyond Hangover and Hijack Theories 31
A Genuine Evolutionary Puzzle: An Enemy in the Mouth That Steals Away the Brain 35
A Genetic Mystery: We Are Apes Built to Get High 41
A Cultural Mystery: Prohibition’s Strange Failure to Take Over the World 49
Pickles for the Ancestors? 58
2 Leaving the Door Open for Dionysus 61
The Human Ecological Niche: Creative, Cultural, Communal 65
The Creative Animal 71
“Here’s to alcohol-the cause of, and solution to all life’s problem”. Homer Simpson.
Steve, Homer offers a lot of Life Lessons.
I’m not much of a drinker. I like Asti Spumante, which gives you an idea of my “alcohol palette,” and I have a glass of it at Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas dinners, plus a glass on New Year’s Eve. If we go to a Mexican restaurant, I might have a margarita. I’ve been drunk once in my life—in my teens, drinking sloe gin fizzes like they were sodas (which is what they tasted like—and also gives you an idea of how long ago I was a teenager). I felt so awful the next day, I figured alcohol was not the way for me to feel good.
Deb, the first time I got drunk was at our Class Day Celebration in High School. I woke up in the parking lot in the back seat of a random car…with a classmate whose lipstick was definitely smudged. Like you, I felt so awful! My second and last time I got drunk was at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The guys on my floor of the dorm threw a party and whatever I was drinking–I lost track after a while–did NOT agree with me. I puked my guts out and vowed never to get that wasted again. And, I’ve kept my vow!
The worst hangover I ever remember was Jackie’s sister. She and her then boyfriend broke up just before Labor Day weekend (this was at a bungalow colony in the Catskills, ca. 1968), she just turned 18 and decided to drown her sorrows in Southern Comfort, of all things. The next day she was sicker than the sickest dog.
I never drank at all until I was 48 and in Paris when the cost of a coke at dinner exceeded that of a glass of wine. Phil said if I drank it for a week, we would save some money. After drinking it for a week, I liked the taste and never looked back. For me a dinner at a restaurant just isn’t festive or celebratory without a glass of wine. I too don’t like wine or regular alcohol. Just wine.
Patti, I don’t care for beer either although I have consumed Ginger Beer.
Beer. I don’t like beer.
I drank a bit when I was in college, mostly beer, and mostly because pretty much everyone else was doing it. When I turned 21 in 1965 and could drink legally, that took a good bit of the thrill out of it. In my 50s I rediscovered beer for a while but gave it up when I retired because of the calories. Fortunately, I don’t like wine, which gives me an odd feeling behind the ears that I imagine must be something like a case of mumps coming on. I’ve heard that it gives a lot of others the same feeling, but if it has a name I’m not aware of it. I’ve actually been drunk only 3-4 times in my life, all during my college years, and it’s not a feeling I want to repeat.
Michael, I don’t want to repeat the feeling of being drunk, either!
When we were young I drank a lot more. I should probably start with my parents. When we were kids my father drank beer. Then he switched to screwdrivers, followed by whiskey sours (which I was tasked to make). But when he switched to Scotch (Dewar’s was his regular choice), my mother stopped drinking and started a crusade to (1) get him to stop and (2) convince the rest of us that he was an alcoholic.
We had a very good friend we spent a lot of time with when we were first married and he was big on drinking. So if we went to dinner, there might be a cocktail first, then a bottle of wine, and depending on the restaurant, perhaps an after-dinner drink. If you didn’t drink along with him, you ended up paying for his drinking.
When we went to someone’s house on a Saturday night, there might be Mateus or a Harvey Wallbanger (a screwdriver with Galliano on top) or something else along those lines. The thing is, Jackie never liked to drink – she likes Sangria (preferably with fruit) and used to have an occasional White Zinfandel – so as we spent less time with others and more time alone, I drank less and less. The first time we went to New Orleans with a bunch of teachers, they wanted to go to Pat O’Brien’s for hurricanes, and Jackie abstained. I do like beer – but only certain beers. If I lived in Munich, I’d probably be at the Hofbrauhaus or Augstiner Bierhalle regularly, and I do have an occasional Foster’s at Outback. I generally prefer white wine to red, but rarely drink either. Occasionally I will buy a bottle and refrigerate it (white, of course) to have with a meal, but since Jackie doesn’t drink, not often. I can’t remember the last time I had a mixed drink, but my choice would generally be a vodka & tonic (though I do like margaritas). The couple of times I’ve been drunk, it has been more emotional turmoil than alcohol consumed, because there were times I drank a lot more with no ill effects.
Jeff, my father liked beer whenever we had spaghetti for dinner. My mother preferred red wine or Asti Spumonti on Special Occasions. We have a few friends who consume a lot of alcohol, but we’ve learned to meet them for lunch–where they only have a couple of mixed drinks–rather than dinner where they’ll order four or five mixed drinks. On such occasions, Diane will order a White Zinfandel and I’ll order coffee because I’m the Designated Driver.
Oh, we used to go to the duty-free boozze places at the airport before coming home from Europe in the summer. I remember bringing home Dutch gin and Jackie’s favorite – two bottles of Bailey’s Irish Cream we got on the boat from England to Ireland. But when we got it home, my grandmother and aunts drank it all!
Jeff, we have friends that used to go to the Duty Free stores near the International Bridges to buy Bailey Irish cream and Grand Grand Marnier at heavily discounted prices.
1 glass of Martinel’s sparkling apple juice on New Year’s eve. A cold beer very occasionally during football playoffs (2019 was the last one, I think). We don’t keep alcohol in the house for guests, so if you come over, BYOB.
Rick, Katie has developed a taste for seltzer. The growing market for all forms of seltzer (both hard and regular) has cut into beer sales substantially.
Rick, we are the same. No longer have alcoholic beverages on hand (not that we have visitors these days – my siblings are all on the West Coast and Jackie is not speaking with hers, and most of our friends don’t live i the New York area).
But that reminds me of an amusing (at least to us) story. M y parents were visiting us from California for my cousin’s bat mitzvah. This was shortly after we moved here in the late ’80s, by the way. My aunt – my mother’s younger sister – had just married for the third time and wanted to introduce her new husband. Since Jackie was working she was not about to make dinner on a Monday night in May, so we decided to meet out our place and go to a local restaurant. Jackie had a bad cold at the time, but she rushed home from school and served hors d’oeuvres before we went out. My aunt and her husband walk in, drunk as skunks, carrying their personal bottle of vodka (they never left home without one). My aunt started berating my mother, “What is wrong with your daughter in law that she doesn’t even offer us a drink?” WTF? You’re drunk already, bitch! We went out to get the car for the short drive up the hill to the restaurant, when Leo INSISTED ON DRIVING! But he couldn’t remember the code to open the car door and instead the trunk popped open.
As Dave Barry would say, I swear I am not making this up. We actually made it to the restaurant and back alive and the two of them drove home to Long Island in one piece. I don’t think I ever saw them after that when they weren’t soused.
Jeff, a decade ago, one of our faculty members got divorced. And, he started drinking. A lot. One night he called our beautiful secretary and claimed he need some documents right away. She showed up a his door with the papers and he started groping her. She pushed him away and filed a complaint with Human Resources. After the College conducted an “investigation” and a hearing, that faculty member was “moved” to our South Campus, far away from our secretary. As part of the deal, he had to agree join AA for at least a year. Our beautiful secretary was furious at the resolution and left the College for a better job with a law firm.
I don’t begin to fault her.
Very interesting, George. And it is interesting that this is a mostly non- or light-drinking group of commenters.
Lately I don’t drink because I am losing weight (and I sleep better). I used to like a glass of wine in the evening. My husband drink of choice is beer, and he hasn’t had any of that in a year or so.
Tracy, most of my family and friends are light-drinking folks. I never drink anything with alcohol in it when I’m the Designated Driver although I have seen other people have a beer or a glass of wine and drive.
I am a big fan of beer. And I mainly drink light beer. Ritzy IPAs are wasted on me. Miller and Pabst are just fine.
I drank all the sweet stuff in college and I very rarely have a mixed drink these days. Maybe the occasional Mimosa or Bloody Mary.
We had a “court” party yesterday (I live on a cul-de-sac). The youngest couple in the group brought Old-Fashioneds but only had one other taker. One woman doesn’t drink but all the rest are beer drinkers – this IS Wisconsin. However, since pizza was featured on the menu, I had one beer and then switched to – you guessed it – Diet Coke.
Beth, most of my friends in Madison, Wisconsin drank beer (and lots of it!) when I was going to school there in the 1970s. As far as taste is concerned, the red wine I mostly drink is under $10. Expensive wines are wasted on me. I have a friend at the Pool whose favorite drink is Jack Daniels. It sells around here for about $35 a bottle.
I’m not abstemious but I’m close to it!
Bob, I’ll put you on our list of abstemious (sort of) list.
I do like beer, particularly dark beers and Belgian ales, and most of the wines, liquors, mixed drinks (including sangria) and such that I’ve tried. But I’ve only been hungover sick drunk once, and that was more than enough, and Type 2 diabetes has kept me essentially teetotal for decades…occasional sips of what wine or harder stuff Alice might have, or a very occasional sixpack of near-beer.
Root beer, ginger beer. birch beer and cream soda (infrequent champagne cola) among other soda flavors (all diet) and seltzers along with ice teas and sugarless juice drinks in ceaseless tides. I was usually a cheerful buzzed drinker, when I imbibed. But all unnecessary drugs beyond caffeine have tended to be not my speed (which kills).
Todd, alcohol in any form makes me sleepy.
My parents were alcoholics and drank beer All The Time, so I don’t drink beer at all.
I like margaritas and mai tais and daiquiris, but rarely have any. I like wine, and have a palate for good wine, but hardly even drink any of that these days. I have some $50 bottles down the basement and drink one or two of them a year.
Jeff, I have no palate for good wine. A glass of sweet red wine or sangria is more my speed.