Steerpike

You like (or at least, admit to drinking!) MGD; try mixing 60% MGD with 40% Clausthaller NA beer. I find I can't tell the difference and I can drink more. That's my 'home beverage' of choice these days. Ironically, the Clausthaller NA is more expensive than the MGD

I was delighted (really!) to find, just a couple of weeks ago, that a 'nicer' restaurant in town sells a beer called Nimbus Dirty Blonde - it's a local (Tucson) beer and it is only 3.5%. I've since bought several six-packs of it and it's great!
Actually, don't some states ban the publication of ABV on the bottle, to prevent people from selecting beers based on ABV? Of course, they are worried about people choosing the strongest !! I would like every restaurant to carry at least one of: Corona/Tecate/MGD/Heineken/Pacifico/Peroni/Moretti/etc - just one! - something that I know I can drink two of and not die the next day. If you knew just how bad the hangovers are for me if I drink the 'wrong' beer, you'd understand ! Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams are two that will send me to hell and back if I drink even two, for reasons I cannot explain.

Bob

You must be the exception.

I'm not saying the drink situation is worse here, it's just no different with folks in their 20's going out on the town and getting shit faced.

The difference tends to be, they just stay in one place all night to do it in unless in Boston as there isn't anywhere near by to walk over to. Places also don't close at the same hour uniformly, so people get turfed at different times of the evening...and they just head straight into their cars.

Bob

It's $10 minimum my way, and then $5 a mile unless you reordered a taxi to the airport, $65 one way for 12 miles doing that into Logan...it's cheaper to hire a limo....

SultanOfSwing

Bloody hell - no wonder no-one uses them. I'd guess here in the Chicago suburbs it's much the same, which would explain the same situation here.

Still - that's mental. At least if I was on the rip in Chicago I could get the train home for a fiver on a weekend. I'd have to be at the station by 12:20, but it could be done

Bob

Aye, bit mental, but then there's something like only 2 cabs in town and if you want the minivan to take all your mates, it's usually a long wait...no wonder most don't bother.

It's not much cheaper in Boston, but at least they are everywhere down town...but I swear the rates go up once the T shuts down for the night, the cheeky sods

SultanOfSwing

I'd be prepared to bet it does.

What surprises me about people using cabs in the town I gig in is the amount of times one shows up at the bar, meter running, and then he's left out there for half an hour or more before someone gets in

More money than sense some people . . .

Ridski

I live in a commuter suburb of New York, and for a while the last train out of NYC was around midnight. Didn't do it often, but if I was well-bladdered, I'd be prepared to hang with my friends until the night was done, usually about 2am, as we're all in our late 30s now, and catch a cab home. It's about $100, but it's worth it for the freedom of staying out as long as I want in the city. Otherwise, I'd have to drive in, and that would be no bloody fun at all...

tamms_1965

In my 45 years here I have yet to meet any mom picking up their kids at school after 5 or 6 glasses of wine! I have known a few to have 5 or 6 drinks, at a neighborhood party, but not drive. (maybe I just hang with a mellow gang) I've been know to have a few myself out but I've always had my transportation worked out beforehand (either by foot, my son, or hubs) What I tend to see more of is teenage drunk driving....kids that are not even old enough to purchase booze are getting DUIs. It doesn't seem like they really "get it." I've had two students die over the past 10 years as a result.

oldmanriver

interesting subject. i have travelled extensively in the US, but my most recent experiences in the south (AL) have witnessed far worse alcohol abuse than I see every week in Scotland.

not many people seem to go out for just a few beers, its all beer, then a cocktail of shots of either jaeger bombs, tequilla, JD, wild turkey etc.

and the DUI is still pretty shocking. I think its because these places dont have much of a downtown area, and the bars are pretty spread out. On a friday/saturday night you tell how busy a bar is, by the car park. and the car park always empties at the end of the night.

Juswus

I went to stay with a friend in Mississippi and I insisted we get a cab home after a night our on the piss, and she said she felt like she was back in high school as that's the last time she had got a cab home

And then she wondered why I didn't want to go with her to pick up another friend one night as we had been drinking and she was taking her drink with her in the car....in the glass It was all terrible, but somehow seemed surreal when she took her glass with her.

Bob

don't forget the drive through liquor stores

scrubbedexpat091

Cabs are well used around here downtown, cops are out like crazy on Fri/Sat nights and one way streets makes it easy to catch the drunks, many also get hotel rooms for the night.

I work at a hotel and we get tons of people every weekend staying the night just for they can go out, for many a hotel room is cheaper then a cab ride home.

helwardman

Plenty of those where I live.

We had some guys from Oregon working with us recently and their eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they saw their first drive-thru daiquiri place

Juswus

Get out of here!!!! seriously???

helwardman

Deadly serious.