What kind of drunk are you?

[Baffle]

Pubs, or Public Houses are the centre of a lot of things because they were one of a few places whole communities would gather in ye olde days. The other one was church (assuming they had one) so it was how people got to know each other. So when people lament their closing, they're usually lamenting one that's been around for anything between 50 and 400 years. No one gives much of a shit if a pub that opened in 2010 closes in 2022 beyond maybe "Awww, I liked that place". But when really old, borderline historical places go to the wall, its felt a bit more keenly. Its why I prefer pubs to bars or night clubs: their only purpose is to get shitfaced, or get shitfaced AND dance. If I go to a pub I can have a beer, yes. I can also have a plate of sausages and mashed potatoes, or a chicken and vegetable pie the size of my head, or a chicken parmie with chips and salad of sufficient size to sink the Titanic. And I can do it sitting outside on a wonderful, blue sky day. Or I can be inside on a cold and wet one and watch my favourite weather as I eat a meal sitting at a lovely table looking out a window.

Here we tend to have far more pubs (as you've described them) than bars (outside of cities maybe, but I don't live in a city). My hometown, population ~20K, had 22 pubs (not bars) when I was at school (I know this because it was part of a geography project). They can't all be centres of the community!

I do understand the role of the pub, especially in smaller communities. But we didn't pull out all the stops to save the libraries, post offices and other communal services in those places (indeed, actively voted for the party we knew would do it), but we'll kill our granny to save a pub. Mad. Bring back village greens and wickermen, I say.

Edit: What I mean is, that pubs (and alcohol) have this position in the British (and likely other) psyche that says 'We must save this institution at all costs, and if you don't want to, well, you're hardly British at all!'

 

[gorfias]

Mostly a sleepy drunk. Drink relaxes me. Course, I have woken up to find I posted something I really wish I had not.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I am the anti-drunk. There was in fact a time where I'd take other people out to have drinks on my birthday, but I've never touched the stuff myself. I'm basically the #1 risk group for alcoholism.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I'm beginning to feel that a lot of you teetotalers in here think there's sobriety, then a 90-degree turn into fall-down, sloppy drunkenness if you come within an inch of an open bottle of spirits. There's a vast middle ground between those two states; how fast one traverses that ground has several contributing factors that most "drunks' (or "drinkers" is less derogatory) manage to navigate responsibly all the time. It's possible to get a happy buzz without getting pants-on-head retarded.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

I think alcohol and me has reached an understanding over the years, a symbiotic relationship that, thanks to pretty bad anxiety issues, mades it very difficult to avoid regardless. The desire to feel even a hint of confidence is just so much stronger than any care for physical health. Luckily the lurking anxieties mean crippling self-awareness persists through all levels of inebriation, so even when wasted I'm still anxious about just being annoying to others, unless with trusted friends, then it's chatting shit till they have to second-guess their friendship decisions again.

By now, thy knowy me limits and what will affect in what ways under various stresses and environmental factors, so it's not been a problem for a very long while in that sense. Though if I'd a reason to have to stop, it may become difficult as sobriety for extended periods of time snowballs into a crushing hellscape of paralysing fear and self-hatred. We've reached that calm symbiotic understanding: the teetering give-or-take journey around the spiral edge of addiction just to maintain a functional level of self-esteem. Am not sure whether to thank or curse the lurking anxieties for not making me an asshole drunk in that regard.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

I'm a bit more talkative but that's about it. I don't really lose my inhibitions much at all, you ain't going to get me to do stupid shit basically. I just strive for getting buzzed and staying buzzed (on the highway as I call it). If I get more than buzzed, I just get tired and don't feel like doing anything. If I get really drunk, I just pass out and sleep. I've never got blackout drunk to where I forgot hours of the night or anything. I don't even get hangovers (I don't get headaches at all either so I guess that's why) even on the nights that I've gotten drunk enough to pass out. I really only do mixed drinks and ciders (mixed with Fireball shots) because I hate beer (outside of a few specific ones that I find just decent like Leinenkugels Berry Weiss).

 

[Zykon TheLich]

I mean, the Russians also have a reputation for drinking a lot.

The shittier the weather, the more you want to stay inside and drink.

Except the Aussies. That's just what happens when you stick a load of Brits in the sun. It's like a permanent club 18-30 holiday to the Costa Del Sol.

 

[Bedinsis]

Before university I was too scared to start drinking, since in vino veritas and I worried I would do something or say something I would later regret.
During university I had enough on my mind and pressure that starting drinking would just add another problem to the pile.
So I've never gotten drunk.

I mean, the Russians also have a reputation for drinking a lot.

I have a fascinating video to share.

 

[gorfias]

Before university I was too scared to start drinking, since in vino veritas and I worried I would do something or say something I would later regret.
During university I had enough on my mind and pressure that starting drinking would just add another problem to the pile.
So I've never gotten drunk.

I have a fascinating video to share.

Great video. I've heard about the bottles of Vodka in Russia that are like the old coke bottles and their caps. Once open, they cannot be recapped as it is assumed that once open, you're going to finish the bottle. Even for me, that is an invitation to get pretty sick.

Really, everything in moderation. But when one is as miserable as the people in the blighted communities noted in your video, moderation may be all but impossible.

 

[Baffle]

I'm beginning to feel that a lot of you teetotalers in here think there's sobriety, then a 90-degree turn into fall-down, sloppy drunkenness if you come within an inch of an open bottle of spirits. There's a vast middle ground between those two states; how fast one traverses that ground has several contributing factors that most "drunks' (or "drinkers" is less derogatory) manage to navigate responsibly all the time. It's possible to get a happy buzz without getting pants-on-head retarded.

Yeah, there's a very big middle ground, and it's far and away where I spent most of my drinking time. I was just there too often generally.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

I think alcohol and me has reached an understanding over the years, a symbiotic relationship that, thanks to pretty bad anxiety issues, mades it very difficult to avoid regardless. The desire to feel even a hint of confidence is just so much stronger than any care for physical health. Luckily the lurking anxieties mean crippling self-awareness persists through all levels of inebriation, so even when wasted I'm still anxious about just being annoying to others, unless with trusted friends, then it's chatting shit till they have to second-guess their friendship decisions again.

By now, thy knowy me limits and what will affect in what ways under various stresses and environmental factors, so it's not been a problem for a very long while in that sense. Though if I'd a reason to have to stop, it may become difficult as sobriety for extended periods of time snowballs into a crushing hellscape of paralysing fear and self-hatred. We've reached that calm symbiotic understanding: the teetering give-or-take journey around the spiral edge of addiction just to maintain a functional level of self-esteem. Am not sure whether to thank or curse the lurking anxieties for not making me an asshole drunk in that regard.

Mood.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Great video. I've heard about the bottles of Vodka in Russia that are like the old coke bottles and their caps. Once open, they cannot be recapped as it is assumed that once open, you're going to finish the bottle. Even for me, that is an invitation to get pretty sick.

Yes, I spent some time in Russia and Belarus in the early 90's I can confirm this is true.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Except the Aussies. That's just what happens when you stick a load of Brits in the sun. It's like a permanent club 18-30 holiday to the Costa Del Sol.

On a 45C+ day nothing is better than inhaling your first ice cold beer.


(45C = 113F in the old money)

 

[Xprimentyl]

On a 45C+ day nothing is better than inhaling your first ice cold beer.

I'll never forget a guy I met when I first moved to Texas from Ohio. The first time I met him, he walked up to the bar and sat next to me; didn't engage me in conversation or anything, just sat down at the first available seat, exasperated from the heat, and asked for two steins of Bud Light. I thought he was ordering for himself and a friend, but no; he received both steins, and downed one in a single gulp, literally opened his esophagus and dumped an entire stein directly into his stomach. Despite his being a bigger guy, this is no easy feat, and I couldn't contain my awe; I just blurted out "how did you do that??" He smiled in response, and said "when it's that hot outside, you can't help it." He proceeded to then sip his second beer (and several others after it) like a civilized individual. We became fast friends, and I watched that ritual several times over the next several months as I became a regular there after that.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

literally opened his esophagus and dumped an entire stein directly into his stomach

Yeah, I've had mates who could also do that. Good for pounding down that first beer and for boat races (a kind of drinking game) but otherwise just a way of getting far too messy far too fast.

 

[Gordon_4]

I'll never forget a guy I met when I first moved to Texas from Ohio. The first time I met him, he walked up to the bar and sat next to me; didn't engage me in conversation or anything, just sat down at the first available seat, exasperated from the heat, and asked for two steins of Bud Light. I thought he was ordering for himself and a friend, but no; he received both steins, and downed one in a single gulp, literally opened his esophagus and dumped an entire stein directly into his stomach. Despite his being a bigger guy, this is no easy feat, and I couldn't contain my awe; I just blurted out "how did you do that??" He smiled in response, and said "when it's that hot outside, you can't help it." He proceeded to then sip his second beer (and several others after it) like a civilized individual. We became fast friends, and I watched that ritual several times over the next several months as I became a regular there after that.

This is former Australian Prime Minister, the late Bob Hawke. He earned himself a place in the Guinness Book of Records, when in 1954 at the Turf Tavern during his student days at Oxford, he drank a yard of ale (2 1/2 pints or 48 liquid ounces) in 11 seconds. And yes, we consider this one of Bob's great achievements.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

he drank a yard of ale (2 1/2 pints or 48 liquid ounces) in 11 seconds. And yes, we consider this one of Bob's great achievements.

Looking at the cast of nothings we've had since Hawkey we probably should have had a yard glass qualification enshrined in the Constitution.

 

[Gordon_4]

Looking at the cast of nothings we've had since Hawkey we probably should have had a yard glass qualification enshrined in the Constitution.

Christ that'd liven up Election Night.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Christ that'd liven up Election Night.

It's funny enough watching ScroteMo try to choke down a pot when he's out campaigning. Very real chance he'd drown attempting a yard glass.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I'm beginning to feel that a lot of you teetotalers in here think there's sobriety, then a 90-degree turn into fall-down, sloppy drunkenness if you come within an inch of an open bottle of spirits. There's a vast middle ground between those two states; how fast one traverses that ground has several contributing factors that most "drunks' (or "drinkers" is less derogatory) manage to navigate responsibly all the time. It's possible to get a happy buzz without getting pants-on-head retarded.

Perhaps, but some slopes are slippery, and for some of us the risks are not worth the "benefits".