One Fisted Drinking
Radley Balko notes that most studies of college “binge drinking” are based on an idiotic threshhold definition and wonders “how many strident anti-alcohol laws enacted due to inflated statistics effected by the old definition will now be revoked because of the new one?”
This reminds me of the time I was conducting my psychological screening for submarine duty. After I completed the rather extensive survey, and the corpsman was reviewing it before submission to one of the shrinks, he directed me to correct my answer to one of the questions: “How much do you drink?” My answer had originally been “2 or 3 drinks a night 3 or 4 nights during the week; 4 or 5 on weekend nights.”
He told me I’d be sent to Alcohol Rehab if I submitted that answer. I had to reduce both the amounts and frequency of my drinking. That’s when I understood why he had directed me to fill out the survey with a pencil, not a pen.
I’m sure that my size (6′ 4″, 250 lbs) had a lot to do with the fact that I seldom got more than a slight buzz on, and that was only on those “heavy drinking” weekend nights.