I'm not sure if my views on alcohol are any more coherent, but I know I'm not changing them.

Anyway, selling booze is certainly more respectable that being a NYT op-ed columnist.

The thing is, there doesn't have to be any tension between selling alcohol and believing that alcoholism destroys lives. You can advocate for all kinds of things that support people and lower the incidence of alcoholism and provide high quality treatment when it happens, and also sell wine, (and I'm not sure what you do when you strongly suspect you have an alcoholic customer.) You just have to think a little more deeply and clearly about the issues, which is his basic problem.

Also I find the first paragraph of the OP to be a great one.

In English, we have 33 words for people who drink too much high-end wine, and only one word for people who drink too much low-end wine. QED.

Souse?

Wino. I guess that's two.

All the crashes of members of the credentialed and credited classes are amusing, but what can compare to Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy getting busted for college admissions fraud?

We'd better send Martha Stewart to prison again.

3: Totally agree.

That said, by volume the sales of alcohol are not driven by occasional drinkers consuming moderately. The broader industry makes a lot of profit off of individuals who consume too much. That's probably slightly less common when the alcohol is produced at small vineyards or distillers, is slightly more expensive etc.
But I wouldn't be surprised if Budweiser knew how much of their beer was going to people who drink 15 plus cans a day.

5: But, yes, he's trying not to say that he can drink but the poors can't.

8: That, the Saudi prince having a hand in the Bezos divorce, and Rand Paul getting punched out by his neighbor are my top three.

I recently read Babylon Confidential, actress Claudia Christian's autobio -- a graphic portrait of wine alcoholism in someone who isn't even poor.

8: the most awesome thing about that scaniwcandal was the number of people enthusiastically criming to get into usc. usc!!! lolololol

OT: I don't want you plebes to treat me any differently, but a friend of mine quoted one of my dumb insightful questions in his Substack newsletter (about food and restaurants, not phrenology and Lamarckianism). On the other hand, he did not ask whether I wished to be referred to as "Colonel John Matrix." This comes of the decline in common core education.

"The Arby's Examiner" is a fine piece of journalism.

Anyway, I used to buy a delightful wine from New York state that was made with the finest Concord grapes, but I can't find it by the box anymore and the bottles are more than I want to pay for wine from New York made with Concord grapes.

||
Whither the pandemic check-in thread? They were popular, but maybe not necessarily relevant anymore? We could have a final 2-years-retrospective check-in thread where everyone looks back, and then go back to the status quo ante, perhaps?
|>

Would we still get paid for a full episode?

18: Not relevant? Over 2 years into the pandemic I just had my first Covid test (self-administered) this morning. To my surprise it was negative. I decided to stay home anyway.

To the OP - I don't really get what there is to be angry about. I just thought it was funny that Kristoff made such a drama about quitting his job at the New York Times and didn't even bother to try to follow the law on establishing residency in Oregon.

Oregon has better wine that New York state.

It seems like his thinking was that Oregonians would just feel so honored that a genuine New York Times columnist would agree to serve as governor of their provincial state.

Like Dr. Oz is doing with the Senate.

24:. I guess JD Vance belongs in this group too, but he wants everyone to forget his "elite" connections.

But I wouldn't be surprised if Budweiser knew how much of their beer was going to people who drink 15 plus cans a day.

Of course they know.

My friend in the video game industry told me that the skew in video games is even stronger than alcohol. Only the addicts keep the industry going.

It crossed my mind to add sexism as an additional flaw in Kristof's understanding of alcoholism. If more women are wine drunks than men, perhaps he's overlooking them.

Whither the pandemic check-in thread?

Oh yes! They're still nice; I'm just flakey!

Usually I remember to post them when I have a question that doesn't justify a whole post.

Maybe he was in China when the Pinot documentary Sideways was released?

My friend in the video game industry told me that the skew in video games is even stronger than alcohol. Only the addicts keep the industry going.

Do you know if they meant this across all game types, or is it specific to the BS kind that are primarily about in-app purchases? Those are quite obviously built on an addiction model, but ISTM that "serious" mainstream games are almost entirely supported by self-identified gamers who play pretty obsessively, then a modest number of casual players, then 90% of the populace who are essentially unaware they exist.

Like, that famous chart that claims 70% of Americans essentially drink zero alcohol is famously bullshit, but I think it probably does describe a lot of video game categories. I also think that phones/tablets (and, to some extent, Switch) support a less extreme distribution of players--lots of casual gamers, a few obsessives--but I don't think that, overall, that's where the money is.

It's also true of teenage girls clothing. The vast majority of people don't buy any. Some people buy some. And then the last 5% of the population (like Hawaii!) it's all they wear.

As long as it keeps them away from gambling.

Anyone who has spent significant time in Mississippi is aware of how, many decades ago, state legislator Noah 'Soggy' Sweat resolved Kristof's seemingly paradoxical view of alcoholism:

You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey:

If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.

I take his point. The worst effects of hard liquor include cirrhosis and heart damage. The worst effects of wine include people talking about wine. I'm sticking with gin.

If a person is a teenage girl, by definition whatever they wear is teenage girl clothing, regardless of how it's actually marketed?

33: Thanks for this! I've never seen it before and it is great.

I've enjoyed 33 before, but I don't recall the final line, which is a fantastic capper.

Gin tastes like pine trees from a discount Christmas tree lot.

I mean, I still drink it from time to time. But it's not a favorite.

38: If you buy fancier gin, it will taste like pine trees from the full-price Christmas tree lot.

I have a kid to put through college.