Thursday, December 11, 2008

To hell in a lager bottle

So, as long as I’ve got a theme going here, the WSJ has a harrowing, statistics-studded report on the drinking habits of Europeans. Apparently the Journal is so fascinated by the subject they commissioned a market research company to survey citizens of 13 EU countries, plus Russia, Turkey, Switzerland & the US.

Dunno what the driving force behind the paper’s interest is, but they conclude that the Euros are headed for a culture of binge drinking.

Seems that the population across Europe leans towards either abstinence or overindulgence.

“’It's hard for me to accept that there are this many teetotalers in Europe,’ said Mark Hofmans, a managing director in GfK's Brussels office who analyzed the survey results. ‘But we are seeing a trend where there are some people who never drink and some people that when they drink, they drink a lot.’”

Well, I certainly can vouch for the binge drinking in Britain, but it appears that Italy & Spain are leading the way to switching from wine to beer.

& it’s astonishing how many respondents judge that they aren’t impaired until they’ve consumed five or more drinks. I’d really hate to be at the bars where those folks are sucking them down.

However, if they’re focusing on beer, then perhaps that means the price of wine will go down & I can get a bottle of Cordon Rouge for less than $30.

So, not a total loss, then.

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