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Observations on Americans, Part ... 4?
Mar. 2nd, 2008 08:48 amAmericans cannot hold their liquor.
Going out for drinks and having a selection of alcoholic drinks available at social gatherings is a standard part of life in Canada, so I thought I was familiar with its effect on people. But HOLY CRAP. I went to a party last night and was one of the first people there, so I got to see most everyone come in, and they went from jolly sober to smashed drunk in about fifteen minutes, apparently on wimpy American beer.* I am used to comrades downing six or seven pints and a couple of shooters still being able to walk straight and hold a decent conversation, but after what could only have been two or three bottles these people were finding stairs a challenge. There were some people who by the end of the evening had the cognitive powers of a slow five-year-old. How can this be? Is it because the higher drinking age prevents gaining a tolerance of the stuff in developing years? Do you seriously expect me to believe none of these people drank before they were 21?
And then this morning I was auditory witness to one of our new downstairs neighbours making comically exaggerated offerings to the porcelain throne. Lovely.
At any rate, I can understand, now, the attitudes towards alcohol of some of my more puritanical acquaintances, if this is the sort of context they have.
*American beer is 4% alcohol, as opposed to 7% in Canada and, what, 73% in Europe?
Going out for drinks and having a selection of alcoholic drinks available at social gatherings is a standard part of life in Canada, so I thought I was familiar with its effect on people. But HOLY CRAP. I went to a party last night and was one of the first people there, so I got to see most everyone come in, and they went from jolly sober to smashed drunk in about fifteen minutes, apparently on wimpy American beer.* I am used to comrades downing six or seven pints and a couple of shooters still being able to walk straight and hold a decent conversation, but after what could only have been two or three bottles these people were finding stairs a challenge. There were some people who by the end of the evening had the cognitive powers of a slow five-year-old. How can this be? Is it because the higher drinking age prevents gaining a tolerance of the stuff in developing years? Do you seriously expect me to believe none of these people drank before they were 21?
And then this morning I was auditory witness to one of our new downstairs neighbours making comically exaggerated offerings to the porcelain throne. Lovely.
At any rate, I can understand, now, the attitudes towards alcohol of some of my more puritanical acquaintances, if this is the sort of context they have.
*American beer is 4% alcohol, as opposed to 7% in Canada and, what, 73% in Europe?
