Moderation & Care Are Key
Excuse the rant, but I haven’t written about this in great detail before and believe it’s important: moderation and care when drinking are key. Moderation should be obvious—don’t drink so much that you do something harmful or idiotic. As for care, I refer to the intellectual stimulation and satisfaction provided by knowing more about what you’re consuming.
The incident that prompts discussion of moderation is I woke up about two hours ago due to a man loudly banging on the door to our apartment. I looked through the peephole and found someone I didn’t recognize. I asked him who he was. He replied, “Open the door!” I asked what he wanted. He said, “I need booze! Open the door!” I told him he had the wrong apartment and to go home. He continued, “I don’t care! Open the door! I need booze!” This continued for a while as he kept on pounding on the door. Fed up, I told him to go away again or I’d call the cops. He said, “Go ahead.” Well, OK then. I called his bluff and dialed 911, as he stood there and continued to pound on the door while I was on the phone. Ridiculous! After another ten minutes or so, he finally went away probably to harass other people in the building. There’s no word from the police, but I hope they found him wandering around and threw him in a cell to cool off.
There are several lessons to be learned here. First, don’t go knocking on people’s doors at 6:00 AM asking for booze. That’s retarded. Second, go away when someone is actually on the phone talking to a 911 operator. Staying around? That’s retarded. Third, don’t get so drunk in the first place that you would do something that retarded. Because quite simply, that’s retarded. Please be respectful of others when drinking. It’s common courtesy, and it’s nice to live in civilized society.
As to care, this is really more of a pet peeve and opinion of mine rather than something based on the obvious harm of drunken behavior. In this case, you should care about what you’re drinking, because this is something that directly affects your own body. Additionally, alcoholic beverages aren’t integral to health. Instead, they’re more of an extracurricular activity, and why participate in extracurriculars unless you want to learn more? Besides, the additional knowledge oftentimes makes the experience more worthwhile and enjoyable.
Yesterday, I spent seven hours pouring beers across two sessions for Shelton Brothers, which is an importer of fine craft beers. They showed up at the Beer Advocate beerfest with over thirty selections, which is just a crazy number. Most brewers/importers/whatever showed up with maybe three or four. Shelton showed up with over thirty. I was a bit overwhelmed at first, but quickly tasted a bit of each and got the hang of it within a half hour. Now, I can understand when people come up and say things like, “I don’t know which to try. There are so many,” or, “Give me your favorite,” as a selection that large is very difficult to process in those few seconds at the booth. In both cases, I would ask them what they liked and would try to offer suggestions based on their answers. That was my job as a pourer, and I was more than happy to perform it. What I do not understand is when people come up and say, “Give me something to drink…I don’t care!” That, like excessive drinking (and is probably symptomatic of it), is retarded. First, you’re at a beerfest celebrating craft brews, not a drunkfest with whatever fermented urine is on tap. The reason why people attend is to learn more and to have fun drinking various beers—not to get drunk. People attend because they care about what they’re drinking. Second, if you do want to get drunk, then go buy a 40 for 1/10 the price of your ticket and do it where you won’t harm others. Why are you at a relatively pricey beer fest instead? Save yourself some money and public embarassment. Mind you, this doesn’t mean you should become a beer snob (or wine snob or liquor snob). There’s little more annoying than the guy who stands there and swishes the beer around with his nose in the air. Instead, it means that you should at least try to enjoy more than just getting drunk, even if it’s simply saying, “Mmm. That’s interesting,” or, “Yuck. That’s disgusting!” It’s a fun experience with more to it than just alcohol entering your bloodstream.
Anyway, these two things just happened to be foremost on my mind, and I wanted to express my opinion. So thank you, Mr. Drunken-Moron-Who-Banged-On-My-Door-at-Six-in-the-Morning for encouraging me to write this. It may not have happened otherwise. Besides, I think the ideas of moderation and care are integral to the nature of this blog. It celebrates a good drink and the act of drinking—not the act of being drunk.
October 30th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
Wow, that is one of the more bizarre stories I have heard in a while. Makes me glad I live on a private (albeit dirt) road! Mmm, the beer festival sounded nice though, except for the ignorant drinking to get drunk attendees. I tried to buy tix to the one in Portland, ME next week, but it has already sold out.
October 30th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
I just talked to the landlord today, and yup, it’s a new one they haven’t heard before. I wonder if the guy even remembers banging on my door. Probably not. He seemed pretty hammered.
October 30th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
Great post. While I am known to not practice moderation very well, it really gets under my skin to see people drinking with getting drunk the only reason for it. It may be a shock to alot of people but beer, wine ect. taste good!