I somehow missed this last week: an announcement by Forbes that Austin might be the hardest-drinking city in the country. According to Addie Broyles at Relish Austin, nine percent of Austin men reported having at least two drinks per day. Personally, that doesn't sound like a lot to me. I first read it as Ninety percent and thought, "Damn, with this many drinkers, how come it's so hard to get a good Martini in this town??" But then I realized that at 90% intoxication, Austin would have more of a pre-Industrial Revolution feel about it than it does.
The stats:
61.5% of residents have had a drink in the last 30 days (72% for UT students)
20% admit to having participated in "binge drinking", which is defined as having 5 or more drinks on one occasion (34% for UT students)
I wish the statisticians would focus on more compelling data, like why so many cocktails suck in Austin; amount of food dyes and high fructose corn syrup consumed by an average drinker in a night on Sixth St.; how many great civilizations collapse because of mixing cocktails with "juice" out of the soda gun.
Comments (6)
Wow: I'm so proud of my town. I think.
Admittedly, I think I've done my civic duty over the last 15 years to earn this noblest of honors.
P.s.: My God! Binge drinking is defined as having 5 drinks on one occasion? I'd say you have some living to do if you *haven't* ever binged.
Posted by mindy | August 13, 2008 11:26 AM
Posted on August 13, 2008 11:26
I agree, Mindy. I found the definition of Binge Drinking to be a relatively low threshold. I'm thinking "Five drinks... that's just happy hour!" I thought Binge Drinking would necessarily involve double digit imbibing, depleted funds, some sort of embarrassing act of public humiliation, and possibly regurgitation. Alas, it is defined as a relatively mild night on the town, or an evening of working on the Dale/David project. Such are the puritanical times in which we live!
Posted by Tex | August 13, 2008 12:34 PM
Posted on August 13, 2008 12:34
That's 9% who admit two drinks a day. According to my ex-husband, which on second thought isn't such a great source, in medical school they teach students to double the number of drinks a patient admits to in order to obtain a more accurate number. Around 20% of Austinites drinking at least two drinks daily seems more reasonable.
Posted by Amy | August 13, 2008 1:02 PM
Posted on August 13, 2008 13:02
Two beers is a pretty standard evening for me. (Well, except this week, when a stomach bug has cursed me to take some antibiotics that require no alcohol.) And five drinks counting as "binge drinking" is just ridiculous. In what time frame? Heck, if I have a couple of brews watching the Longhorns on a Saturday afternoon and then go out with friends to a bar for the evening, does that mean I've spent an entire Saturday "binging"?
Posted by Lee | August 13, 2008 4:33 PM
Posted on August 13, 2008 16:33
I'm not a doctor, but I thought binge drinking would be more like 10-20 drinks, or until you passed out, whichever came first...
Let's be real.
Posted by keith evans | August 13, 2008 6:45 PM
Posted on August 13, 2008 18:45
Amy--this is amazing--they say to DOUBLE the drinks confessed. That means that we are all either half full of BS all the time, or that half of us are upright citizens while the rest of us are untrustworthy creeps! (at least regarding booze consumption)
Lee--can't they fix that whole don't-mix-booze-and-antibiotics thing by now? You would think they could apply the miracles of modern science to something that would actually be useful--a booze-proof antibiotic! OR, even better, booze with built-in antibiotics! (After all, the pomegranate people keep bragging about their fruit's health-giving properties...)
Keith--thanks for keeping it honest.
Posted by Tex | August 14, 2008 9:50 AM
Posted on August 14, 2008 09:50