Took an overnight train from Vienna to Oostend(sp?) years ago. Was awakend at 6:00 A.M. or so as we passed through some German city. The guy pushing the cart came down the isle and said (loosely) coffee, beer, etc.
The guy next to me had a beer. I ordered a great coffee. And, hey, what the heck, a beer sounded great. Not looking for a buzz. Just a drink. I figured their OJ would suck. The beer didn’t.
Guinness is a breakfast.
The last World Cup was fun as the earliest games started at around 7:00am here. Always an amusing time to be down the pub.
When I was here in Japan the first time (as a student), all of the foreign exchange students were invited to an elementary school “sports festival”. We arrived fairly early and were parceled out to different families for the day to share awnings and lunch. On arriving at my families tent, grandfather popped open beers for all the men present. At 8:30 in the morning. At a public school event. With hordes of kids around. No one batted an eye.
Some of them may be drinking club soda.
And not all alcoholics are binge alcoholics. Some are maintenance. They never really get wasted, but they wake up at a reasonable hour, have to have that drink, nurse it for a while, then hit the liquor store for a bottle of El Cheapo wine, nurse that all evening, then hit the hay after Leno and wake up to start all over again.
Yeah, some of the so-called alcoholic “warning signs” strike me as bogus. I don’t drink in the mornings (even a drink with lunch makes me sorta disoriented for the remainder of the day) but the one that’s a special thorn in my side is the “drinking alone” warning sign. My husband doesn’t drink, so even if he’s around I’m drinking alone. Sometimes he works nights, so if I have a drink after dinner in front of the tv I’m gasp drinking alone. There’s a big difference between drinking when you’re alone and drinking BECAUSE you’re alone. I’ve heard some people say things like “yeah, I drink constantly from the minute I wake up until I pass out at night, but I’m not an alcoholic because I never drink alone.” WTF?!?!
I know this is already several days later, but heck. If you’re “of age,” not going to be driving, don’t have any responsabilities for several hours, then go ahead and have a wine cooler if you feel like it. Obviously you don’t want to make a habit of pouring scotch on your Wheaties every day, but think of the one time as a little “vacation” or treat without even having to leave the house. Be sure to say: [Troy McClure]"Ahhhh, sweet liquor – eases the pain![/Troy McClure] 
I admit to having some Bailleys in hot cocoa or coffee in the morning, but that’s about it.
re: "cheap dates"
There are quite a few people who are born with an inability to synthesize alcohol properly. I vaguely remember this from a class. I *think * it has something to do with a lack of some sort of enzyme. It has higher rates of incidence in asians and continental africans.
More than a few of my asian friends have this. A wine cooler will make some of them totally legless. FWIW my mom is asian. When she’s feeling frisky she’ll take a sip of my pina colada and get goofy. Red faced, giggly, chatty, the whole package. When we were vacationing in Italy, my brother and I would often have a glass of wine with dinner. One night, my normally stoic Mom decides to get in the spirit of the trip and downs half a glass (if that) of red. Within 5 minutes she’s tossing bread rolls at Bro and me and flinging strands of spaghetti at the wall to see if it would stick. Needless to say, my brother and I were laughing our asses off and congratulating each other on having inherited Dad’s Irish liver as opposed to the Filipino one.
Seconded.
I drank at 2 PM once. Not morning, but I was working nights and had gone to bed at around 9 AM. It was New Years Eve and I wanted to try out the bottle of scotch my wife (sniff) bought me.
Decided I did not like drinking on an empty stomach after 5 hours of sleep.
re: “cheap dates”
“FWIW my mom is asian. When she’s feeling frisky she’ll take a sip of my pina colada and get goofy. Red faced, giggly, chatty, the whole package.”
"One night, my normally stoic Mom decides to get in the spirit of the trip and downs half a glass (if that) of red. "
“my brother and I were laughing our asses off and congratulating each other on having inherited Dad’s Irish liver” …:eek:
. . .(just kidding)…
How. Did. I. Miss. This. Thread. PEOPLE! You need to call me to these things! 
where ya been…out running sum rum ? isn’t that what most call a bootlegger…and look it’s not even 7AM yet…:eek:
I prefer the title Purveyor of Fine Spirits, but if you prefer bootlegger I won’t hold it against you.
Luckily it doesn’t look like there was too much work for me to do on this thread, as she was quickly steered in the right direction. Off to await the sunrise, and my next call to duty…
I knew this was my type of board, and seeing all the people here arguing in favor of drinking when the roosters crow just confirms it.
That’s fucked up.
Funny.
But fucked up.
In college, I used to work 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. as a short-order cook–oops, I mean grill operator–at Waffle House. I’d get off work, sweaty and greasy after ten hours over the grill, and sit around and rest and have a cup of coffee and something to eat (I never did get sick of the food there) for an hour, until 8 a.m. which, in Clarke County, Georgia, was when they started selling beer in the a.m. I’d pick up a couple of 40s and go home, change into some shorts and a dirty t-shirt (no sense dirtying a clean one), and sit on the front porch looking greasy and nasty and possibly too trashy for the Jerry Springer show. I would sit there, at 8:30 in the morning, wishing I had a few teeth missing to complete the image, and drink my 40 and wave gaily to my oh-so-respectable neighbors as they drove off to work, pretending not to see me.
Ahh, what fun…
OK, actually most of it sucked. But the drinking and waving was fun.
When we are out on the weekend, we start our “breakfast” at 5:30 am.
hic
By the way, always remember: it’s five o’clock somewhere.