Observations on Americans, Part ... 4?

[tealin]

Americans 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?

Comments

[sydpad.livejournal.com]

At least in LA, which is most of my observation of Americans, they don't drink that often during the week-- like routinely having wine with dinner for example. For one thing you have to drive everywhere, for another it's a surprisingly puritanical, hard-working place. So they don't get the cast-iron livers that, say, oh, Londoners have; if you only drink on every third weekend I don't know if you'd ever develop a resistance. It's funny though, I wouldn't have said Angelinos drink less than Canadians, or is that just the prairie?

The British of course drink more than I would have thought possible... it takes a good 8 pints to get a small London female drunk, so they generally have about 32 on a night out, this being Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with toilet-worshiping sessions evenly spread out between. And nice middle-class women's magazines caution that you shouldn't have more than a half-bottle of wine A NIGHT. o_O

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have said Angelinos drink less than Canadians, or is that just the prairie?

It's hard for me to say; I moved to Canada from Utah and anywhere is wetter than Utah. The people I know from the prairies or the North tend to drink more than the others, in my limited experience, possibly as a result of growing up with nothing to do. :) I haven't known any Maritimers, though, and I hear they have a bit of a reputation. There is 'happy hour' at work every Friday, here, with freely available bottles of beer, but I don't know how much people drink when this is not available to them.

But yeah, Canada ain't got nothin' on the UK. Holy smokes.