…to listen to a lecture on alcoholics. I infiltrated Jacksonville’s impressive Lakeview Health on Friday. I went to a lecture on “Saucy Women,” suggested to me by a reader, which was intended for addiction professionals, but open to the public. It wasn’t like an episode of Law and Order where Detective Benson goes undercover, prison bars clanging behind […]
Monthly Archives: May 2015
A seat at this bar will set you back a month’s rent… I keep getting these chirpy email messages from Bergdorf Goodman. They announce with preposterous hauteur, “The Dresses you Need for the Sunny Season,” or “How will you wear lace?” or “Oscar de la Renta knows Feminine Charm.” I have resisted these attempts to woo […]
This may have it all covered, but the Junior Mints… What is the thing an alcoholic fears most? Taking a drink. No joke. Every alcoholic I have ever talked to will say the same thing eventually (if they’re honest): they are afraid that one day, all their good intentions will pack a bag and move away and without […]
This weekend I said to Lauren, “I used to have a lot more confidence when I was drinking. I felt more attractive.” She gave me a wry look and said, “Uh, yes?” Duh. It’s not just me. It is one of the primary reasons people drink – to give themselves a confidence or courage boost. It is […]
A baby sting ray in a tide pool I tormented for a while yesterday… In Florida, it is an unwritten rule (actually it is written) that you are not supposed to “molest” manatees, or sea turtle hatchlings, or alligators or any of God’s creatures. In other words, you are to leave them alone and you […]
God’s finger… I was taking my Happy Hour jog on the beach last evening and it was opulent. Perfect, white clouds stood in neat, straight lines like school girls on field trips. Mollusks and asteria punched their way out of the sand to bask in a late-day sun: starfish, olives, whelks, pastel coquinas… Gangly seabirds pecked at hyacinth tide-pools. […]
My Happy Hour – 4 o’clock, low tide, solo Guana walk… The term “Happy Hour” comes from American Naval slang in the 1920s following the First World War. According to Mental Floss Magazine, it was an allotted period of time on a ship where sailors engaged in various forms of entertainment to relieve the monotonies of the seafaring […]
Gentle Reader: No one should socialize with tabletop bullies, neither the kind of bullies who try to force people to eat more than they want, nor the even worse ones who try to force others to drink. That is the social error, no matter how it seems to be disguised with conviviality and hospitality. The […]
It was World Whiskey Day on Saturday. So naturally I thought of Scotland. I spent a lot of time in the Highlands near Inverness, and although I never drank much Scotch, I hung out with a number of American dudes, living-like-lairds, with Holland &Holland flasks of Glefiddich in their knickers pockets (so their hands were free to tote loaded, […]
That is not an oxymoron for some. I have people write to me all the time, who ask about the “rules” of drinking responsibly (as if I would know). They say “I’m going to a wedding – help :)” or “I am 26 and if I don’t drink I’m a social pariah :)” or […]