I’ve just returned from my neighborhood Coop Pronto (it’s like a 7-11) with the latest of the stores free promotional offerings:
A bottle of beer.
(Don’t worry, I won’t be drinking it. It’s got The Hub’s name written all over it.:-))
What is it about drinkers over here in Europe that they (well, the majority of them) don’t get pissy drunk? Or, at least they’re not pissy drunk in public. Why are some Europeans better able to control their drinking, or the effect, than quite a few Americans?
Where did the difference in attitudes pop up? With the Pilgrims? Did their straight-laced lifestyle affect how we Americans handle alcohol? Was it Prohibition?
All I know is that there *is* a big difference. I just wish someone could bottle it up and ship it back home.
Comments (14)
It certainly isn’t all of Europe- a massive Binge-drinking problem over here in the UK- x
Lots of drunken Hockey fans and rednecks in Ontario, Canada. Maybe it’s a North American issue.
Strictly speaking, they were not giving away ‘beer’. They give away this new ‘2.4 vol% beer’ which is strictly speaking not ‘beer’ for ‘real men’.
Since we face a drop in legal driving limit (0.8 promille to 0.5 promille in 2005), there is a lot of pressure in Switzerland.
Restaurant and bar owners complain that people do not drink as much. That is what the administration wants: people not drinking as much - alcohol doesn’t help keep families peaceful and it doesn’t make our roads safer.
Restaurant and bar owners now face a difficult time, which is caused by many people that drink a lot of alcohol reconsidering their habits, and maybe shifting more of their drinking to ‘home’, or ‘friends’. It’s cheaper, too, because you can get your drinks in the super market instead of more expensive bars or restaurants.
Another implication is that of late night bars that have jacked up prices anyway - where a typical Coca Cola costs 10 to 20 CHF. If you can’t go by public transport late at night - and you can’t really, not in Zuerich, most of the times -, you would at least try to drive even if drunk, and if you can’t do that, what are you doing to do.
Beer companies also fear for their income, so they try to introduce new beer: ‘2.4 vol% beer’ is priced probably similarly even though you only get ‘half as drunk’. Also it is very questionable whether this is a good way to keep people from drunk driving, as most people I know drink until ‘it feels right’, which, for this new ‘beer’, only means that you’d have to ‘drink more’.
So, in the context here, they are not giving away ‘good beer’. They simply try to ’survive’ and keep people entertained with a little bit of alcohol. The worst thing that could happen to breweries would be people abdicating the alcohol altogether.
So they try to sneak in a new drink they call ‘2.4 beer’, and it’s actually great: you can drink as much as you usually would do, and you are only half tipsy.
I’m confused. In the beginning you said it wasn’t “real beer”. But, at the end you said that you can only get half as tipsy with the 2.4% percent alcohol. So, my question is, what makes a beer “real”? Even though one can only get half as drunk with the 2.4%, one can still get drunk.
Sykee: Do you think there is a colonial connection?
Kyla: I forgot about Canada. Granted, I’ve only been in the French section. But, I didn’t see any really drunk folks there either. I’m sure they’re there though.
Heh, how would you know? The Quebec French accent sounds like a drunken Parisian from what I’m told. LOL (Not nearly as drunk as the Cajun French from Louisiana that I’m used to hearing though.)
“Heh, how would you know? The Quebec French accent sounds like a drunken Parisian from what I’m told. “
Ya know, that’s not a bad description. It’s kind of nasal and slurred…at least to me.
Completely off topic question: What are pingbacks and trackbacks and why do we care?
not drinking to oblivion and beautiful sculptural renditions of the human body seem to fall into the same category . . . in the same country where quantity beer drinking is a sport, the US Atty General could not stand in front of the sculpture of woman’s natural beauty, and breasfeeding gets a mother summarily kicked out of a cheap restaurant.
Click here to find out what a “trackback” is.
Click here to find out what a “pingback” is.
Why don’t the Swiss get prissy drunk in public? Well because the general populace simply won’t have. You can bet your hat on some irate citizen calling the guys in blue ( The Police ) as soon as some drunken lout is disturbing the peace of the night. Not much in the way of punishment is happening to the poor boozer, he simply get’s an overnight stay in the drunktank, a frugal breakfast in the morning and a stiff fine for causing a nuisance. Police are very busy hunting for dopefiends and dopepeddlars in the larger cities, so they wouldn’t mind the occasional lout, however citizens know very well to keep their beloved cops busy. Social control in this country ( Switzerland ) still works thanks GOD.
I have read quite a bit of American Colonial history, and yeah–I think it can be traced back to our Puritainism. Like pretty much everything.
People somehow think that was a long time ago, but it really wasn’t. We are not thousands of years old like Europe. We’re just a bunch of screwed up whippersnappers (with a retarded monkey for a president, I’m sorry to say).
Hmmm, you know, I can’t remember the last time I had a beer. I think I’ll go get one. An IMPORT one. ;)
By the way, you gotta see this: http://www.blackplanet.com/Members/Channels/frameset.html?ID=8497&CATID=7
“Can I touch your hair?” Ha ha!
By the way, here’s the update on our skiing holidays with the Quicktime movie that shows Rashunda’s Butt Kicking Snowboard primer lesson!
Here is the link:
http://www.tiscalinet.ch/swisswuff/