[LMB] "Memory" brings a thought on Ivan and Marriage

[Howard Brazee]

Heather Boyer wrote:
> Heather writes:
> It could also be that, with Americans tend to think of wine as X strength, so "2 glasses of wine" == half a bottle == slightly toasting (or really toasting) a "normal" person. It was a learning curve for me, when I was a student in Sweden, to hear there were different "strengths" of beer. If an American reads about someone drinking bottles, they would compare it to their general knowledge base. Ditto for countries where wine might be much less potent. 
>   
American SF tends to assume that as well.    Another aspect of American 
drinking was the binging style which is older than prohibition - when 
the expansion had a frontier where alcohol was hard to come by.

Movies are interesting.   We have _The Thin Man_ series with witty 
dialog and people drinking all the time.   Leigh Bracket wrote about 
binging in Africa with people drinking and driving and smoking in 
_Hatari!_.    _Paint Your Wagon_ showed a young man who was tough enough 
to handle and enjoy all kinds of vice.


But societies with drink and drugs had long given them to infants to 
keep them from crying, and mixed water with wine - which killed germs.   
Alcoholics tended to have a smaller, but more constant high where 
alcohol was more easily available.  

It wasn't until the industrial revolution that employers decided these 
(alcohol and other drugs) were bad for business.

So what will be the pressures in the future?    I suppose a lot of it 
depends on how wealthy we are (for workers), how dangerous it will be to 
have people impaired on our streets, and whether sober-pills work.