# Kindergartener Gets Drunk At AppleBees After Getting A LI Iced Tea In His Juice Cup **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 10, 2006, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285 "2006-01-10T06:44:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/21 "2006-01-10T19:49:23Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > \*Hades? One-way? I’ll take the aisle seat. Middle seats only. _Bwahahaha!_ ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/22 "2006-01-10T19:51:43Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > So we have a case where no malice or intent was present, but that’s no matter, we’ve gotta sue somebody! Without commenting on this particular case, why does lack of malice or intent have anything to do with whether a lawsuit is appropriate? Are you suggeting that negligence isn’t a legitimate cause of action? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/23 "2006-01-10T19:55:16Z")
I’m also going to side with **TKoS**. Someone do a check on this woman - see if she’s related to the Wendy’s/finger-in-the-chili scammer. Here’s another [link](http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_008220423.html) if anyone missed the story. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/24 "2006-01-10T20:02:22Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > I’ve seen apple juice and LI iced teas, and they aren’t close in color, unless you’re used to caramel-colored apple juice. Perhaps the beverage was in a closed sippy cup or a restaurant cup with a lid, so that she didn’t see the color. But one article on this said he took two “sips,” so how much could he have consumed? ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/25 "2006-01-10T20:21:29Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Without commenting on this particular case, why does lack of malice or intent have anything to do with whether a lawsuit is appropriate? Are you suggeting that negligence isn’t a legitimate cause of action? Not at all. I am strongly suggesting that the courts are not a one-size-fits-all remedy for every untoward occurrence to befall an individual in their time aboard this orb. People need to turn back their thinking clock to the era when we were thankful that nothing _really bad_ happened, and we got the hell on with our lives. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/26 "2006-01-10T20:27:01Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > Perhaps the beverage was in a closed sippy cup or a restaurant cup with a lid, so that she didn’t see the color. But one article on this said he took two “sips,” so how much could he have consumed? Not a bartender or a parent or a doctor or anything like that, but two sips of dark rum (vodka, etc.) is nowhere near enough to get you drunk. Maybe it’s different if you’re a kid, but I can also smell something running on a treadmill and hanging out in a lab at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/27 "2006-01-10T20:28:07Z")
I think the issue here is damages. How bad was the kid really hurt? The mom’s violin playing about people laughing at the hospital sounds pretty lame to me. I wouldn’t call that “psychological damage.” I also can’t see any reason to sue the whole Appleby’s corporation if this restaurant is independently owned. This woman is just seeing dollar signs. Aside from a (probably unnecessary) trip to the emergency room where the kid was apparently “treated” with a glass of water. I would guess that she’s exaggerating the kid’s drunkeness as well. How wasted could he have been after two sips? My Psidey sense tells me the whole trip to the emergency room was just a bit of grandstanding. The mother is milking it. I would be pissed if someone fucked up my kid’s drink like that as well but I also know that mistakes happen and that no real damage was done. I don’t think it would even occur to me to ask fore a free meal, much less to sue. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/28 "2006-01-10T20:34:03Z")
Hell, I would have been happy to have gotten a long island for the price of an apple juice. I’d trade the kid my beer for it. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/29 "2006-01-10T20:42:16Z")
At age four, I got drunk on Manischewitz at Passover, and nobody sued my grandma. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/30 "2006-01-10T20:49:22Z")
> [@The King of Soup](#): > > Hi. I’m the wet blanket. Shoot at me. > > This story feels wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I’ve been a bartender, and I am a parent, and there’s little about this that makes sense. Let’s see … > > 1. Does Applebee’s even _stock_ apple juice? Well, maybe, in the winter, for hot buttered rum and similar drinks, but I’ll bet the juice is in a can. A small, single-serving can. There’s just not enough demand for the stuff to let it ferment in a plastic jug under the bar. > > 2. A child takes a sip of his drink, makes a face, and says “That tastes nasty.” The mother does _not_, at that point, taste it. Instead, she waits for him to continue drinking it (um, let’s pretend that toddlers will _continue_ to drink stuff that “tastes nasty,” neither refusing it nor asking for some other beverage, until they’ve actually been poisoned), until he begins to act “erratically,” which brings us to – > > 3. How does a five-year-old’s behavior become “erratic?” What behavior is normal for a five-year-old that crosses the line for a drunk? Or vice-versa. Speaking of really poor diagnoses, there’s: > > 4. “Nurses giggled?” Probably not (Haven’t been one, but related to several and know the numbers of a few more). Nurses don’t giggle on the job much, and hardly ever when they have distressed children in their care, and even less than _that_ in the presence of the kid’s parents. As for staff coming “from all over,” that had to be the slowest day _ever_ in a battery park hospital. > > 5. Psychological trauma already? Wow. Of course you don’t want to let the ground get out from under your lawsuit, but exactly who is providing the initial diagnosis here? > > 6. I’d hate to be correct in the assumption that some woman slipped some vodka into her young son’s cup in an attempt to give him a much better future than he could otherwise expect ( and that’s the best construction I can give it), but the alternative is what? That some Applebees employee carelessly or intentionally put alcohol into a container that never ever calls for alcohol to be put in it? And thought to get away with it, even though they fire bartenders for giving away too many free drinks to the regulars? I pretty much concur with all of this execpt for the first point. Applebee’s does have apple juice. I think they only keep it as an option for kids’ meals but they have it. After browsing through a google news search and reading through some accounts of the story, I still haven’t been able to find out how this woman supposedly knew it was Long Island Iced Tea, nor have I read anything indicating the resaurant has admitted to anything. I have to agree, this whole thing smells like fish. I’‘ve worked in a lot of resaurants- including some Applebee’s style sports bars- and I can’t envision a scenario where a LLI would “accidentally” get poured into a juice cup. The alcohol generally doesn’t get anywhere near the kitchen (not until after closing time anyway, heh) and the apple juice is usually kept in cans in a cooler on the servers’ line. The only scenario I can imagine is if a pitcher of LLI got left at the server’s station for some reason, and then some clueless server thought it was apple juice. Right now, the entire story seems to be based only on the word of the mother. I bet another shoe is going to drop pretty soon. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/31 "2006-01-10T20:49:47Z")
true - little gets get more wasted on less product. It’s a whole “surface to mass ratio” thing ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/32 "2006-01-10T20:51:17Z")
“LLI” should have been LII, of course, ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/33 "2006-01-10T21:03:03Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I still haven’t been able to find out how this woman supposedly knew it was Long Island Iced Tea, supports my theory that she added the dark rum to the apple juice. When LIITs were new in the mid 70’s, one version used a combination of cola and apple juice with the alcohols to get the desired flavor ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/34 "2006-01-10T21:13:54Z")
I think it’s a bit fishy too, but not entirely impossible. With a lot of ice, I could see the two drinks being roughly the same color, and if the bartender was in a hurry, I could see them pouring a LIIT and an AJ and setting them both on the waiter’s station and leaving to help other customers, under the assumption the waiters would figure out which was which (though I usually see the bartender keep a receipt/order tag with the drinks). ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/35 "2006-01-10T21:14:18Z")
I smell a rat, too. It’s true that some restaurants keep their fruit juices at the bar for use in mixed drinks, but Applebee’s uses special plastic cups with kid-friendly designs and lids for kids’ drinks. I find it very hard to believe that a bartender could be so stupid as to mistake an order for a kid’s drink for an alcohol-based drink. Now, I’ve seen dark-colored apple juice, too. Usually, this is homemade or “natural” stuff that hasn’t been filtered, so it’s pretty sludgy, kinda like apple cider. But I’ve also seen LIITs, and they’re usually clear. None of this is adding up, and I smell a fish story. Robin ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/36 "2006-01-10T21:15:58Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > Middle seats only. _Bwahahaha!_ Brilliant! ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/37 "2006-01-10T21:30:28Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > May I ask why? [Bugmenot.com](http://Bugmenot.com) is a valid site which allows you to bypass the annoying registration fields found at many newspaper sites. What’s wrong with allowing someone to access the article without providing personal info? It’s not like he’s giving the bypass to avoid paying a fee. Not to provide too much of a hijack, but even though bypassing the registration might not be depriving the business of an up-front fee, it is depriving it of valuable marketing data. Whether the company puts that data to good or bad use (or even no use at all if they so wish), their rules are basically, “Fill out this registration info and we’ll let you see our content.” As a business itself, the Reader doesn’t want to provide work-arounds to another business’ registration requirements. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/38 "2006-01-10T21:32:31Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > I smell a rat, too. > > It’s true that some restaurants keep their fruit juices at the bar for use in mixed drinks, but Applebee’s uses special plastic cups with kid-friendly designs and lids for kids’ drinks. I find it very hard to believe that a bartender could be so stupid as to mistake an order for a kid’s drink for an alcohol-based drink. I think it’s very unlikely that a bartender would be pouring joice for kids’ drinks anyway. The servers’ stations usually have their own coolers with milk, juice, lemon slices, etc and the servers pour the kids’ drinks themselves. Like you said, I can’t see any reason that a bartender would pour a LIIT into a juice cup. That’s why I think the only way a mistake could be made is if it was poured from a pitcher. I could see a waitress mistaking a pitcher of LIIT for a pitcher of apple juice but it would still need to be explained why there was a pitcher of LIIT at the servers’ station in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/39 "2006-01-10T21:48:02Z")
thiere is a tiny, albeit grizzly, chance that the server thought it would be a hoot to see an inebriated 5 year old. If this turns out to be the case, that server should be strung up but the short ones ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/40 "2006-01-10T21:49:41Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > I could see a waitress mistaking a pitcher of LIIT for a pitcher of apple juice but it would still need to be explained why there was a pitcher of LIIT at the servers’ station in the first place. …or anywhere. I wouldn’t think that the volume of LIITs ordered in a given night would necessitate a pre-made pitcher being available. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285.md?page=3)