Re: A Long Time Ago

1

Was he even old enough to drink at that meetup?


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:00 AM
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Wikipedia says he had turned 21 a few months earlier.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:05 AM
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Unfogged meetups from back in the day have Wikipedia pages?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:07 AM
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No, it's just a line entry in the Frequent Cons wikipedia page.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:16 AM
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I confess to having no idea what prompted this.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:17 AM
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go away


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:18 AM
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It's a shame Ezra doesn't stop by here anymore. Or is he one of you lot?


Posted by: text | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:18 AM
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You totally should have sold to Drudge when you had the chance. Just sayin.


Posted by: simulated annealing | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:18 AM
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So who was the actress that showed up as Mr. B's sister, and who is Mr. B?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:22 AM
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no idea what prompted this

Ezra just left the Washington Post because they wouldn't pony up eight figures for his new venture.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:26 AM
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10: Not 7 but 8 figures? Wow.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:28 AM
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5,9: Are you serious?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:28 AM
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I was serious!


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:30 AM
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8 figures per year, right?


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in." (9) | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:31 AM
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I assume that's for a bunch more staff and servers and offices and so forth, not just him, but still.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:33 AM
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per year, right?

I don't recall reading that. I thought it was a start-up cost.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:34 AM
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9: That leaves you, heebie? Were you serious?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:34 AM
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I did not realize that so many bloggers/columnists had left the NY Times--specifically Nate Silver and David Pogue.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:35 AM
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But when Klein proposed the creation of an independent, explanatory journalism website -- with more than three dozen staffers and a multiyear budget north of $10 million -- the Post said enough is enough. Indeed, Jeff Bezos, the Post's new owner, and Katharine Weymouth, its publisher, never even offered an alternative figure, sources familiar with the negotiations said.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:35 AM
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17: Yes! I only know Mr. B as Tedra's B, which maybe it was, but she doesn't seem to have been there. It's becoming clear that the answer probably means I'm being gullible, the longer I type this, but I still am.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:38 AM
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13 go away


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:38 AM
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The NY Times says that the Volokh conspiracy is going to be included on the Post's site.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:38 AM
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Mr. B was there, as was his sister, who is an actress.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:39 AM
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And to be clear, it was Tedra's Mr. B -- he just happened to be in NYC and she wasn't.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:41 AM
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Oh.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:41 AM
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25 was supposed to be humorously to 23, but then 24 ended up being interjected.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:42 AM
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22: Yes. Conservative law professors are a bargain, compared to wonky young blogger.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:50 AM
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That was the first time I'd ever met any internet people. I was terribly impressed by how easy it was to spot the tableful of people who were trying to figure out if more strangers might be looking for them. The confused peering around really pops out of the background.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:50 AM
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Did you ever see this Mr. B, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._B._(Mark_Braun), heebie?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:53 AM
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27: The word "bargain" implies that you are getting good value for money. Something inexpensive is not a bargain when it's awful.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:59 AM
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28: At our first Boston meetup we had some problems finding eachother. That was why it was so great when urple brought a picture of mcmc's handbag to the one at the Miracle of Science.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 12:07 PM
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how easy it was to spot the tableful of people who were trying to figure out if more strangers might be looking for them

See, I figured it would be easy, but at the meetup I went to the table spotted me. "Are you looking for us? Because you don't look like you belong here."


Posted by: L. | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 12:09 PM
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The thing about having academics or think tankers write for you is that they are often willing to do it for free, as a means of expanding their influence. Especially law professors, it's not like they have a real discipline competing for their time. But many economists, etc. are fine with this. Many blogs on the NY Times, etc. are using the free academic labor model. It will be tough for independent journos to compete in the area of 'expert blogging', although a few (like Yglesias, etc.) are sort of doing it.

The future of writing is amateurs.


Posted by: PGD | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 12:13 PM
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29: So Mr. B's sister is Mark Braun?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 12:13 PM
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34: Oh, heebie! I'm sorry! You're so easily confused!


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 12:15 PM
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32: Was I wrong? Everyone else in the bar was ten years older than you and had clearly just come from work.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 12:16 PM
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33 - You see what you assholes have wrought.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 12:16 PM
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The thing about having academics or think tankers write for you is that they are often willing to do it for free, as a means of expanding their influence.

Yes, if the WP is actually paying anything to the Volokh Conspiracy folks, they are fools.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 12:18 PM
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You weren't wrong! I just expected it to be easy to find the right table.


Posted by: L. | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 12:21 PM
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The future of writing is amateurs.

Plastics.


Posted by: Von Wafer | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:00 PM
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"Remember when the commenters at that one hard-to-follow blog started meeting each other in person, and the blog then became even harder to follow? It's happening again!"


Posted by: Todd | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:04 PM
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I'm disturbed that someone who can be described as "a blogger since middle school" is considered important enough to get media attention when he quits his job. How old am I now?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:07 PM
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43

28?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:11 PM
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32?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:19 PM
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44 gets it right to something like one-part-in-10,000 accuracy.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:23 PM
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46

Don't worry, essear. I keep forgetting my age too.


Posted by: L. | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:24 PM
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I'm sorry I forgot to send a card.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:24 PM
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45: Happy Birthday! The only age I can remember is my dog's.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:25 PM
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Thanks! It's not my birthday quite yet. Maybe it's two-parts-in-10,000 accuracy. I'm bad at arithmetic.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:30 PM
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OT: For the ladies, Taye Diggs and I are sharing a weight stack at the gym. I've generously offered some pointers.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:33 PM
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The Volokh thing is really weird. On the one hand, I figure it's about the Post wanting their readership, simply their page hits (I figure that's why anyone ever hires McArdle). On the other hand, it's going to be paywalled after 6 months. Between that and the fact that everyone knows the WaPo is a liberal rag, after all, it'll probably reduce their readership. BUT that reduced readership will be WaPo's now, which I think is what counts.

Anyway, best of luck to Ezra in whatever he starts up. May it go better than Sullivan's solo thing ... and it probably will.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:33 PM
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50: Pictures. Pictures. Or it doesn't count.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:42 PM
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51.last: Sullivan's solo thing is doing pretty well AFAICT. I suspect Ezra will do better still, but the new Dish model isn't really that bad. I've ponied up my $20 and plan on staying a subscriber. Maybe Unfogged could go to a pay per comment policy and make all the front pagers rich beyond their wildest dreams.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:44 PM
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54

Would there be a discount for puns?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:47 PM
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53: I'm going to write to Ezra and see if he'll pay me for every time I link to him at Unfogged.
Bob Dylan and Yglesias are already paying me.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:47 PM
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53 is extremely pwned


Posted by: L. | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:47 PM
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52: Be cool. Be cool.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:50 PM
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No doubt there will be a rebate for pwnage.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 1:53 PM
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53: Sullivan's solo thing is doing pretty well AFAICT

Really. ? I didn't know. I only ever read him when people pointed to something or other of his, and he's dropped into the wormhole in the quarters I frequent. I didn't necessarily think that was due to any drop in quality (assuming one thinks he offered quality before going solo) - just to a drop in cross-linkage.

Speaking of linkage: does anyone have any idea how memeorandum comes up with its daily links? It can't just be web traffic to a given post in some given place, or can it?* Who is memeorandum, anyway? It just strikes me that mentions on a news, or web, aggregator site are really, really critical.

* One reason I think it can't be just that: every once in while memeorandum links to unfogged, but surely there's not a huge amount of traffic here.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 2:10 PM
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Yeah, it has to be humans reading things they're interested in -- I can't imagine anything automated finding us, and we used to get linked every so often.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 2:14 PM
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Why would one pay for access to Andrew Sullivan's thoughts? I mean an apparently sentient being like Togolosh.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 2:29 PM
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I do think Ezra could have a pretty profitable future running a subscription-based service for DC insiders only that looked more like Roll Call or the Washington Post's Federal Page (which at least used to be by far the best part of that paper).


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 2:31 PM
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Is Ezra Klein the Next Roger Ailes?

Is Kevin Drum trying to give Ezra Klein nightmares?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 2:41 PM
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61: A desire for a conservative counterpoint to what would otherwise be an echo chamber of blog reading. He's gotten a lot better since the days when he was accusing liberals of sympathy with Al Qaeda. Considering the bloggy alternatives he's pretty good on the merits. Faint praise perhaps, but I really do worry about detached from reality by the ech chamber effect the way some of my conservative acquaintances have.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 2:42 PM
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Faint praise perhaps, but I really do worry about detached from reality by the ech chamber effect the way some of my conservative acquaintances have.

Echo chamber syndrome can be diagnosed by the patient uttering certain phrases as if they are intrinsically hilarious, e.g. "global warming", "stimulus", "IRS", "Al Gore"


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 2:44 PM
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I used to think that maybe it was important to know what purportedly "reasonable" conservatives were thinking. Now I know -- they are all evil idiots on any political matters, especially the libertarians, and it's pointless and exhausting to listen to their braying.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 2:47 PM
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Plus, not including "reasonable" conservatives shifts the Overton window to the left.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 2:48 PM
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togolosh, Josh Barro at Business Insider is pretty good for a conservative counterpoint that's not bananas crazy.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 2:50 PM
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I listen to Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs sometimes, myself.

I'm not that interested in the most presentable ones, but I don't want to say write off all southerners as evil people. So listening to imdividuals that I disagree with (that is, really listening, just saying "hmm" and not disputing even incorrect facts), and also listening to conservative demagogues going for a broad audience, I think both of these are worthwhile.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 2:54 PM
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Oh, further to 68: I see that the link I provided doesn't actually show Barro's full stuff. He posts semi-daily; somehow or other you can click around to see his current output.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 3:01 PM
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68: Business Insider has some interesting articles from time to time on things like wealth inequality and the like. I'll have to keep an eye out for Barro.

69: I tried to listen to Rush Limbaugh but his bile gets to me. I can only take so much. I do occasionally enjoy a read of some high wingnuttery, though. Every so often I drop in to right blogistan to see what they are talking about. It's Benghazi again! Or Saul Alinksy! ACORN! fun stuff.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 3:17 PM
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I do think Ezra could have a pretty profitable future running a subscription-based service for DC insiders only that looked more like Roll Call or the Washington Post's Federal Page (which at least used to be by far the best part of that paper).

This is a really crowded space. Ezra's thing was really being the Wonk of Record, the one whose opinion on wonky details counted because he was in the WaPo and people read him. It's unclear he has a competitive advantage gathering information in the 'this-regulation-will-hurt-my-company's-profits' sense that people pay high subscription fees for, or could build an organization that does. But who knows, maybe. He'll get some $$$ to see whether he can produce is my guess, but not eight figures. I think maybe he could do a better version of Talking Points Memo or something. They have a subscription service.


Posted by: PGD | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 3:18 PM
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I do think Ezra is likely to be as good at doing a wonky detail-oriented DC web site as anybody. But man is it a crowded space. Not sure being pretty good at doing it is enough of a competitive advantage.


Posted by: PGD | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 3:19 PM
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I checked out Sullivan's blog on Sunday and there were something like 14 posts in a row about religion. Its hard to find a topic I find more tiresome.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 4:29 PM
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Sunday is a bad day to check Sullivan's blog, for that reason.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 4:47 PM
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I'd actually be interested in his views on religion, but not his other views. I did read something that had been cached about the Pope.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 5:24 PM
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togolosh, Josh Barro at Business Insider is pretty good for a conservative counterpoint that's not bananas crazy.

And therefore, Barro is pretty good for a conservative counterpoint that often isn't actually ... conservative. He's like Sullivan that way.

Barro and Sullivan (and Frum and Bartlett) want to reclaim the conservative brand on behalf of old-fashioned elitism (as opposed to new-fangled oligarchy), but if your elitism includes, say, publicly acknowledging the factuality of evolution, then you're not a conservative. The best you can do is wave your fist at real conservatives and tell them to get off your lawn. The movement has moved on.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 5:44 PM
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Conservative blogging seems more interesting when it's about the military. For instance, they can come up with plausible analyses of stuff like this, which is speculative, but not crazy.


Posted by: torrey pine | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 5:50 PM
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|| NMM to the Hilliard Ensemble. Frowny emoticon. |>


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 6:44 PM
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NMM to the marriage of the Captain and Tennille.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 6:48 PM
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But they seemed so compatible.


Posted by: text | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 7:11 PM
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I've never looked at Sullivan the same way since the identity of Rawmuscleglutes was revealed .


Posted by: PGD | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 7:11 PM
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The ensemble I mean. I respond to disavowed poets, but not unauthored comments.


Posted by: text | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 7:12 PM
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I cannot imagine voluntarily subjecting myself to Dobbs or Limbaugh. When I want to get conservative perspectives I read people like Phil Carter, Radley Balko -- people who are rigorously conservative in some area of their thinking without so much of the hatefulness that goes on with mainstream conservative voices.

Or I listen to my co-worker. She is a devout Republican and one of the most caring people I know. Hearing her think is how I understand what is appealing about conservativism for someone who is quite grounded in reality.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 7:32 PM
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This song is a lie.


Posted by: beamish | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 8:36 PM
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Ezra is my age. I think his career is developing faster than mine, though.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01-22-14 11:52 PM
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Although I did learn today that my former boss is leaving at the end of the month and I'll be taking over some of her responsibilities, so there's that.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 12:01 AM
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No increase in responsibility without eight figures.


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 12:14 AM
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I know, right?


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 12:15 AM
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86 - mouse orgasms for teofilo. Now he needs to move to DC for a more thorough exploration of going nowhere.

I thought Ezra's path would be through TV. In fact, I thought he got a show at MSNBC but now that I look I see he didn't. His writing gives a thorough presentation of bog-standard liberal thinking, but (when I look, which ain't often), I rarely find anything interesting or surprising. Case in point: his listicle of 10 "startling" facts about global wealth yesterday. This is why I still like Yglesias better (yeah yeah cue contempt and screams from commenters). Yeah, he has some strange hobby horses and he's a little less interesting since he absorbed econ 101 and wants to apply it to everything, but from my viewpoint he says something clever every week or two and that's pretty damn good. Business is not Yglesias' beat, though, and he/they should stop pretending it is. But Ezra will always be more successful because he's so much better on TV.

Things on the internet that have gotten worse lately: i) talking points memo since they introduced that subscription service ii) business insider where it has gotten much harder to find the smart stuff amidst the crap that seems to be driving their traffic. Also, what political football said: I can't find anything conservative when I read Josh Barro. But I also can't get inspired when the only reason to read him is that he used to be conservative.

Admitting my fogeyism: Ed Kilgore at washington monthly is my sweet spot right now. Reaching beyond my fogeyism: my teen only watches vloggers on you tube. I wonder who will be the ones in a generation launching new media.


Posted by: simulated annealing | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 1:53 AM
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His writing gives a thorough presentation of bog-standard liberal thinking, but (when I look, which ain't often), I rarely find anything interesting or surprising.

Yeah, I haven't read regularly him in years, and this is why. He was very personable the two or three times I met him in person, though.

This is why I still like Yglesias better (yeah yeah cue contempt and screams from commenters). Yeah, he has some strange hobby horses and he's a little less interesting since he absorbed econ 101 and wants to apply it to everything, but from my viewpoint he says something clever every week or two and that's pretty damn good. Business is not Yglesias' beat, though, and he/they should stop pretending it is.

I agree with this too. Yglesias is laughably terrible at business coverage, but he's still a great prose stylist, and an interesting thinker on anything that doesn't require extensive subject-matter expertise. He seems to be writing more about politics lately than he had been for a while, but still only when he can find some sort of economic hook. I wish Slate would just shift him to the political beat; he would be way better than Weigel, who seems like a nice enough guy but still embodies so many of the problems with the DC political media.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 2:04 AM
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||
Clubbing is really weird. Especially with coworkers and business partners who keep buying you rounds of Jägerbombs.
|>


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 2:16 AM
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92: You can't just say that and not give us details of the debauchery.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 2:22 AM
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There was a pay-per-puff breathalyzer machine at the first bar we were at and a few people had a contest to see who was highest. The biggest guy there won with a .15.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 2:29 AM
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That's a brilliant business idea for a bar to have. I'm surprised it isn't more common. I guess it would interfere with the business model of bars in car-oriented suburban areas, but urban bars don't have that excuse.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 2:39 AM
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If you were above the legal limit it offered to call a cab for you.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 2:45 AM
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As well it should.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 2:51 AM
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Andrew Sullivan provided some use today. I just saw his coverage of Harris v. Quinn (the case about whether public sector non-union members who benefit from union-negotiated contracts should have to pay fees) which provided a great link to Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress. So, then I got to read about Vance v. Ball which sent shivers down my spine.

If it's really true that you could have a boss could get away with groping his secretary if the person to hire, fire and promote her is the head of the secretarial pool, well then ... holy shit.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 4:18 AM
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That's a brilliant business idea for a bar to have. I'm surprised it isn't more common.

It sounds like a terrible business idea. At least in the UK, it's theoretically illegal to serve someone who's drunk. Obviously this is basically never enforced, but creating a paper trail seems like a pretty stupid thing for a landlord to do.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 5:53 AM
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Yes. Nobody wants to know exactly how drunk you are.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 6:10 AM
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99: but there are different legal definitions for "drunk" and "too drunk to drive". A pint and a half of beer could easily put you over the legal limit for driving - you'd be guilty of "driving under the influence" but it wouldn't necessarily make you "drunk" in the sense of "so far under the influence of liquor that his passions are visibly excited or his judgment impaired, or when his brain is so far affected by potations of liquor that his intelligence. sense-perceptions, judgment, continuity of thought or of ideas, speech, and co-ordination of volition with muscular action (or some of these faculties or processes) are impaired or not under normal control" - and in fact there is no blood-alcohol-level definition of "drunk" in that sense, and it is certainly not illegal to serve someone alcohol who is over the driving limit.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 6:28 AM
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100: I do, Moby. How drunk are you?


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 6:34 AM
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Not at all drunk.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 6:36 AM
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101: What's the BAC limit for driving over there? Here it's. 08 and a pint and a half of beer won't even get you close to that.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 6:58 AM
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Our practice at the bar I ran was to gauge people's level of intoxication by offering them a can of non-alcoholic Pabst (yes, there is such a thing -- we were probably the #1 North American distributor) and if they didn't complain, they were too drunk to get served any more actual beer. The flipside of that was that on several occasions the bartenders kept serving me long after they should have cut me off, partly because I worked there and partly because I remain pretty articulate when I drink, until I fall over. Sigh. Those were the days, my friend.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 6:59 AM
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104: An imperial pint and a half of La Fin Du Monde probably would.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:02 AM
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||
-16F right now, +41F predicted for tomorrow. What a country!
||>


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:10 AM
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106: Ah, yes, I was thinking of our pints at like 5 percent.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:13 AM
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but there are different legal definitions for "drunk" and "too drunk to drive

Of course, but say you get hauled up before the magistrate. It's not going to look good if the cops can point to the fact that you tested someone at, say, 0.4, and continued serving them.

101: What's the BAC limit for driving over there? Here it's. 08 and a pint and a half of beer won't even get you close to that.

Are you drinking really weak beer? It's the same here (assuming the B is blood not breath), but the rule of thumb is two pints drunk at normal speed will put you over the limit.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:16 AM
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I think the U.K. limit is about the same, but I'd need to know the density of alcohol to figure for sure. They use micrograms of alcohol per milliliter of blood.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:18 AM
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Looks the same for blood content. But over here a pint and a half is going to be 24oz at typically around 5 percent alcohol. The canonical response for drunks when you ask them how much they've had is "two beers" but over here that's laughably not enough to be DUI if your an average sized male.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:27 AM
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104:?Depends on how big you are and how strong the beer. Some beers ste 8%. i also am unsure of how BAC correlates with impairment in ondividual cases. I've never tested my BAC. i do know that I sometimes hardly feel the effect of pne drink, but after the 2nd I feel sort pf tipsy, and a 3rd makes me pretty sloppy.

On New Years' I had a dinner with pairings--maybe 4 reduced size drinks: a beer, a cocktail and a warm spiced rum. I didn't finish the rum which was full-size. I didn't puke, but I was somewhat unsteady.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:29 AM
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113

Based on the creative spelling in 112 I'm going to assume BG is three sheets to the wind.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:40 AM
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114

Ezra is my age. I think his career is developing faster than mine, though.

Some superheroes develop gradually.


Posted by: torrey pine | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:46 AM
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115

I'm typing on an iPhone.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:47 AM
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116

btockPhone


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:49 AM
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117

Does anyone remember the name of the woman who was a lefty Catholic blogger. Her readers bought her a computer at one point. But she got pretty fed up after Ratzinger was elected Pope and quit. I'd be really curious to hear what her thoughts are on Pope Francis.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:53 AM
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2 (12 oz) beers in an hour doesn't even get me to .01%, according to this: http://bloodalcoholcalculator.org/#LinkURL

Assuming I'm drinking 3 pints an hour, which is a bit fast, but certainly something I've done often enough, it would take 8 and a quarter beers to get me above .08.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:55 AM
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117: Was it Eve Tushnet? She's still on the sidebar.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 7:56 AM
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Yglesias is laughably terrible at business coverage, but he's still a great prose stylist, and an interesting thinker....

What does ayahuasca taste like?


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:00 AM
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118: This figuring 12 oz beers and British pints are 20 ounces. ("A pint's a pound, the world around for values of 'world' that are largely limited to the United States.") The alcohol by volume is usually higher also. You should figure somewhere between 2 and 3 U.S. mass-market* beers to one U.K. pint.

* The higher figure is more for light beer, which is 3.2 beer usually. 3.2 beer is actually 4.2% alcohol by volume, because fuck people trying to figure this stuff out is why.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:04 AM
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The real lesson here is that getting BG drunk is a cheap date.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:09 AM
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Oh, right, I forgot that pints are different sizes. For some reason I can remember that with gallons but not pints.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:16 AM
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124

117,119

Beautiful Horizons?


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:25 AM
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122: I'm taken. But I don't know how cheap it is, since my tastes run to relatively speaking more expensive cocktails.

I did find a great beer and cider store recently which sells by the individual beer. $2 instead of 75 cents for Bud Light, but that's cheaper than the $10-15 cocktails I prefer.

The Copley Plaza used to have a space called the Oak Room which served expensive cocktails, but they came with a pretty hefty sized jug, so it was really two drinks. A beer and one of those was enough for me.

I really need to get set up to make my own sidecars, since I prefer them to my summer standby, the gin and tonic.

Any recommendations for an affordable brandy and orange liquer?


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:40 AM
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124:Or maybe Jeanne d'Arc of "Body and Soul" who/which I can't find on the Internets. I though it was a 'B'


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:43 AM
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I'm taken. But I don't know how cheap it is....

Easy, people. Don't jump for the low-hanging fruit. Let it come to you.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:44 AM
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Also, recs for an affordable cocktail set? My favorite summer drink in a bar is a good mojito. Hmmm Cucci, Cucci. (That meetup when we said goodbye to urple at Cucci Cucci, I had 3 cocktails and a chimay at Charlie's Kitchen (because Sifu and Blume were drinking so much faster). I was really drunk after that, and I had to start a new job the next day.

I thought I had gotten sick from overdrinking at unfoggedecacon, but the doctors at the hospital thought I had gotten sick from food poinsoning.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:45 AM
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Technically, alcohol poisoning is just a very specific type of food poisoning.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:48 AM
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117: I don't think so. She blogged a lot about other stuff. It was a very personal blog, but I remember that there was stuff about Oscar Romero.

Is there a way to search all blogspot blogs? I think she was probably on blogger.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:49 AM
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The calculator in 118 claims I can have three glasses of wine in two hours without impairment, whereas I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be driving in that case.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:50 AM
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129: The word they used when pressed was "norovirus". Actually, first they said stomach flu bug, and I said "influenza?" with a raised brow.

The attending asked me what restaurants I had eaten at so that he could avoid them. I puked about 20 times over the course of the next day--even after everything was up, and I couldn't hold down water or ginger ale.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:51 AM
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131. If you've had three glasses of wine at any time during the evening, you shouldn't drive till next day.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:53 AM
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133: What? I always figure I'm O.K. at anything less than four + one per hour I've been drinking.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:56 AM
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121: I know, I was figuring a 16 oz pint of 5% cider or beer. I do go to a couple of places that serve 20 oz pints but that is pretty rare. Is it Old Chicago that has the 24 oz mugs? I think so. Obvs. if you are drinking imperial pints of something fairly heavy duty, like 6 or 6.9% abv, then two is going to do for most people. Or 4 or 5 for me.

There's a snooty bar across the river that serves, get this, they serve, I shit you not, they serve, can you believe this?, they serve beer in sundae glasses! Also, they used to have an old ad framed from the mid-80s, I believe, where they touted that there 19 beers on tap was the most in the city. This was before OC and craft brewing and all that business, of course.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 8:58 AM
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133 and 134 illustrate contrasting British and US attitudes to drinking.

I would never drive after more than 1 beer, or maybe 2 small glasses of wine. So 2 or 3 units, max. I can't remember the last time I drove after I'd drunk at all, actually, but that would be my upper limit. I'm sure I'd be legal to drive on several times that -- I'm well over 200lbs, and I don't tend to drink that quickly. But I wouldn't.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:12 AM
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Technically, alcohol poisoning is just a very specific type of food poisoning.

Mystery solved: Moby is Lindsay Lohan.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:14 AM
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Serious reaction time impairment sets in long before the US legal limit.

I know that the standard line is to ignore road conditions. I don't-- driving on roads that are busy, that are badly marked, that have no shoulders or merge spaces, this driving demands a lot more attention than a short hop home on wide empty roads.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:15 AM
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136: I take the bus or walk now, but back in the day my old standard was I could drive if I could feel my lips.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:16 AM
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99- The machine made you accept some EULA that noted no physical or electronic record of your result would be kept to "protect your privacy." That seems convenient for the bar owner too.
128- It's funny you mention Charlie's because before said bar with breathalyzer last night, that was the last time people tried to get me to do karaoke. You'd have to get me drunk enough it would break the breathalyzer before I'd do karaoke, though.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:17 AM
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133 and 134 illustrate contrasting British and US attitudes to drinkingdriving.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:17 AM
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I biked home a few weeks ago after having four pints of 7%, although that was over the course of about 4 hours.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:19 AM
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141 is right. In most places, it's hard to go drinking (or do anything else) without a private car to get you there and back. I've become more cautious and moral and all as I've gotten older, but really all that started after I moved somewhere where I could get to bars without a car or paying for a taxi.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:22 AM
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141 gets it right. Personally I make a point of never driving to bars but I'm in the very, very small minority of people in this country who can actually accomplish that in tandem with, you know, going to bars. Remember that LIFE LESSONS paleo dude a ways back? His solution to not drinking and driving was to ONLY DRINK AT HOME!


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:27 AM
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Well, if the only way I could get to a bar was to drive, I'd pretty much only drink at home, too. I don't think the fact that it's impractical to not drink and drive is much of an excuse for drinking and driving. Again, that's probably more of a British attitude to drinking [and driving]. And probably part of the reason why the UK has something like 25% of the road traffic fatality rate that the US does.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:34 AM
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That standard would also make ordinary dining out impossible in the U.S.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:37 AM
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145: I mean, I'm with you. And I'm pleased to live someplace where I can take that eminently supportable moral stand and still drink socially. But the vast majority of people in this country have to choose one or the other.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:38 AM
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Part of it too is that "drink socially" in Britain is a LOT more drunk than it is in the US.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:41 AM
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Drunk driving is also a lot easier in the US, especially if you live someplace where it's mostly highway driving. Everybody drives drunk all the time in LA, but the freeways make it mostly doable.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:44 AM
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I don't know, there was something to be said for all the quality Unfogged-commenting time I used to get sitting in my office in Pr/nc/ton waiting to sober up so I could drive home.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 9:44 AM
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It's not just bars, either. It's also drinking at your friends' houses. Or having people over to yours. Basically you have to drink by yourself, or plan somewhat extensively.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 10:07 AM
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I know which I find easier.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 10:08 AM
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Or Jammies' solution: have your wife always be pregnant.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 10:09 AM
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ABC -- always be conceiving.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 10:12 AM
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153- Is that an announcement?


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 10:13 AM
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NOPE. This is my drinking month.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 10:14 AM
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Drunkuary!


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 10:15 AM
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So you're getting pregnant next month?


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 10:16 AM
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156: Is Jammies required to be DD for the in-between month?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 10:17 AM
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Back to the OP, Jay Rosen has a piece saying that Yggles will be joining the Klein venture. Unsurprisingly.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 01-23-14 2:01 PM
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Fascinating, I hadn't heard that.

Actually, it was Calderone with that tidbit.

I think that's good for Yglesias because too long a tenure at Slate is bad for the soul - I think it fucked up Timothy Noah who I like. I couldn't believe the site's own editor, David Plotz was slate pitching it so hard with this piece on how corrupt politics are necessary to get anything done. Even worse - I found myself agreeing with him.


Posted by: simulated annealing | Link to this comment | 01-24-14 5:57 AM
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BTW, did anyone else find that an annoyingly sexist crack from Plotz about Annie Lowrey leaving Slate to marry Ezra when she left to become a NYT reporter? Not worth the meager payoff of the joke and could have been phrased in a way that wasn't so dismissive.


Posted by: simulated annealing | Link to this comment | 01-24-14 6:00 AM
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I wonder if Ezra'll just hire any old old-timey blogger?

Anyhow, he should get Jesse Taylor in on this.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 01-24-14 6:19 AM
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I would never drive after more than 1 beer, or maybe 2 small glasses of wine. So 2 or 3 units, max. I can't remember the last time I drove after I'd drunk at all, actually, but that would be my upper limit.

Same here. I don't drive very much anyway, but when I do it's generally aircrew rules: twelve hours between bottle and throttle. I wouldn't think ill of someone who drove after 2-3 units, but anything more than that and I'd be seriously trying to dissuade them.
But then, of course, I've never lived for any length of time anywhere that didn't have a decent pub within about ten minutes' walk. (It's not like that's been a criterion; just the way it's turned out.)


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01-24-14 7:22 AM
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