“Somebody’s really drunk driving down Granton Road,” she told the 911 dispatcher.

The dispatcher asked if the Strey was behind the drunk driver, to which she replied “No, I am them.”

The dispatcher asked, “Okay, so you’re calling to report you’re driving drunk?”

“Yes,” Strey said.

Strey pulled over and waited for the responding officer, who gave her a Breathalyzer test which showed her blood alcohol level was .19. Strey is due in court over the matter in December. Link -via Arbroath

The amount of alcohol consumed appears to be important – too little and there is no effect, too much and the beneficial effects are lost, studies on animals suggest.

Experts believe the right dose of alcohol, however, stops the cascade of swelling, inflammation and further destruction of brain cells, known as secondary brain injury.

The latest work, based on more than 38,000 moderate-to-severe head trauma patients, is the largest yet to look at the effects of alcohol on brain injury survival.

This led to an intriguing proposal of giving alcohol to those who just suffered brain injury – call it “booze therapy,” if you will: Link

How bad? Let’s put it this way: a third of 11-year-olds in the city have alcohol-related problems!

… the authorities are deeply concerned about the increase in consumption of alcohol by children as young as 11 in the country’s industrial and financial capital.

So as an experiment, supplying alcohol – either wine or spirits – to youths under the age of 16 in bars, restaurants, pizza shops and liquor stores will be banned. [...]

Some people are pessimistic that the city-wide ban will ever work:

A national law banning the sale of alcohol to under-16s is only loosely enforced, as Italian families are used to sometimes giving young children a teaspoon of wine as a family party treat.

In past centuries, Italian children would sometimes even be given wine to drink in preference to water which was often polluted.

Link

Texting and walking is bad for you, but drinking is no slouch either when it comes to the danger department. Here’s what happened to one intoxicated guy who fell into a drain and got himself wedged:

A motorist raised the alarm after he went to move a car parked next to the drain and spotted the trapped man.

He said: "I heard a voice saying help and at first I didn’t see him.

"Then I tried to pull him out but he was wedged tight. He didn’t see that jokers had removed the drain cover as he staggered home."

Firemen spent an hour removing part of the drain before they could pull the man free.

Link

The Vervet Monkeys of St. kitts are known to raid local bars for a drink or two. Studies have found that the percentage of alcoholism in these monkeys matches the percentage of the human population – most drink in moderation, 12% are steady drinkers, 5% drink to the last drop and some are even teetotalers!

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by dradell.

The Art of Manliness has a wonderful post on 5 classic cocktails that all men should be familiar with and how to mix them for maximum effect.

There’s been a trend lately to get back to the old way of doing things, especially when it comes to things we ingest. This trend has also entered the world of libations. Drink menus around the country are starting to have more of the old classics included on them. Many mixologists are using these cocktails as starting points for newer versions that take advantage of the plethora of products out there today. Recipe books from classic bars such as the Old Waldorf-Astoria, The Savoy, and the Stork Club are available in reprint editions for the new generation to use. And who can forget Old Mr. Boston? They’ve been printings those books since 1935 and still do to this day.

But you don’t need a recipe book to get started mixing up some of the classic cocktails men have been drinking for decades (and in some cases, more than a century). Here’s how to create the 5 classic cocktails every man should know.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by msaleem.

See what happened: Link [embedded YouTube clip]

Half a glass of wine a day may add five years to your life, a new study suggests. Drink beer, and you’ll live only 2 1/2 years longer.

Dutch researchers followed 1,373 men for more than four decades, noting their eating and drinking habits. Men who had about 20 grams of alcohol daily — equivalent to a half a glass of wine — had 2 1/2 years added to their life expectancy at age 50, compared with men who didn’t drink at all, according to the research published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Men who consumed only wine had twice as much added longevity.

Link via Alphecca

Your assignment: in the comments, devise rules for a Neatorama-themed drinking game.

Image via flickr user rpeschetz

You probably already heard you can turn gummi bears into alcoholic delights by soaking them in vodka for a few days. If you want more details than that, or you’ve already tried this experiment and it didn’t work so well, this site tested a method that worked and posted a how-to with lots of pictures. (Turns out you can do this with sugar-free gummis, too!)

The how-to part of this is pretty simple, so I decided to make things a little more interesting. In addition to regular vodka gummi bears, I made vodka sugar-free gummi bears, vodka gummi worms (purely to see if they turned out any cooler looking than the bears) and vodka Red Fish (these were disgusting, but in the interest of science I will share my mistakes as well as my triumphs).

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by peacefulexplorer.

Here’s a tutorial that shows you how to infuse vodka with Skittles. There are a number of tutorials about this on the net, but this particular one is pretty detailed about the process (including mistakes the author made and later fixed) and also includes many helpful pictures. The end result is five bottles of vodka, one in each Skittles flavor.

Link – via tipnut

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by hobver.

Prosecutors inquired why the machine had registered a "fail," which prevents the car from starting, despite the man’s claims that he had not been drinking.

The man claimed the alcohol reading was the result of eating a Bubble O’ Bill ice cream treat and Magistrate Rod Crisp ordered a test to be performed to back up the claim. Police recorded the man’s blood alcohol content as 0.00 and performed the test a second time after he took a few bites of Bubble O’ Bill, yielding a 0.018 reading.

Link – Thanks Denita!

The popcorn, which doesn’t actually have any alcohol content, comes in beer, pina colada and Irish cream flavors. Link – via Unique Daily

National Geographic has an interesting article about some of the strangest hangover cures from around the world. Perhaps they mean "cure" in a way that you’ll never touch alcohol again if you’re forced to take these the morning after:

Germany: Pickled Herring
Pickled or marinated herring is the main ingredient in a sour snack Germans call Rollmops. Considered an excellent way to ward off a bad hangover, they’re made by wrapping fillets of the tiny white fish around bits of onion and gherkin. Rollmops can be a welcome part of what Germans call katerfrühstück, or the hangover breakfast.

Romania: Tripe Soup
Tripe – aka cow stomach – is the go-to ingredient for many Romanians suffering from a hangover. It’s also a common "cure" in Mexico and Turkey, and no doubt many other countries as well. But in Romania, the edible offal is boiled in a greasy, salty soup of root vegetables, garlic vinegar, and cream.

Poland: Sour pickle juice
Polish hangover remedies are all about the sour. Some say that soured milk (which is unpasteurized and has been left at room temperature for a day or tow) does the trick. Others favor sour – very sour – pickle juice, heavy on the vinegar.

Catherine L. Barker has the story: Link to interactive Flash page – Thanks Marilyn!

RUB YOUR ARMPITS WITH LEMON

Puerto Ricans apparently swear by this holistic cure. The lemon juice supposedly stops you sweating and so helps you retain fluid and prevent the dehydration that contributes to hangover headaches. [...]

SNACK ON A BANANA

Bananas contain a lot of potassium, a mineral lost when we drink alcohol and a lack of which contributes to the dehydration symptoms of hangover, says Tom MacDonald, professor of immunology at Bart’s and The London School of Medicine.

Bananas are also a source of carbohydrates and eating one will raise blood sugar levels and so stave off nausea.

Link