# 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:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/41 "2006-01-10T22:04:09Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > 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. The coporation was probably added because that’s what her lawyer said she should do. Name everybody as a defendant and you’re more likely to get someone who is willing to cough up a few bucks to make the thing go away. This is how gun manufacturers ended up on lawsuits for wrongful deaths. Find a bucks-up defendant and then fabricate the argument to show culpability. SOP. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/42 "2006-01-10T22:58:20Z")
> [@SkipMagic](#): > > 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. I see. So inviting others to go to [bugmenot.com](http://bugmenot.com) to bypass registration is also verboten? Back to the thread, the more I think about this, the more I wonder if it’s a scam. When I was a waitress, all the drinks (except the sodas) came from the bar, but the bartenders would never mix up an alcoholic drink and then pour it into a kid’s cup. And how does a mother define a five-year-old as erratic? Giggly? That’s normal for a five-year-old, especially when they’re in a fun new place. I know my kids are generally hyped up after we take them out to dinner. I will reserve my shock and outrage until more info is gathered. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/43 "2006-01-10T23:05:39Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#): > > …Name everybody as a defendant and you’re more likely to get someone who is willing to cough up a few bucks to make the thing go away… Not as yet listed in the suit:[ul][_]Duffy’s Vodka Distilleries[_]Internationa Gin Corporation[_]Harpo’s Light Well Rum Importers[_]NotVarnish Tequilaa Co. of Mexico[_]Canada Dry Bottling[_]Curacoa Inc.[_]The Coca-Cola Company[_]U-Need-A Barware distributors[\*]Leisure Time Ice Company[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/44 "2006-01-10T23:53:03Z")
[QUOTE=JohnBckWLD] Not as yet listed in the suit:[ul][li]Duffy’s Vodka Distilleries[_]Internationa Gin Corporation[_]Harpo’s Light Well Rum Importers[_]NotVarnish Tequilaa Co. of Mexico[_]Canada Dry Bottling[_]Curacoa Inc.[_]The Coca-Cola Company[_]U-Need-A Barware distributors[_]Leisure Time Ice Company[/ul][/li][/QUOTE] You forgot Sitwell Straws, Ltd. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/45 "2006-01-11T01:12:58Z")
> [@Electronic Chaos](#): > > You forgot Sitwell Straws, Ltd. If the story turns out to be false, I think you’ve explained why the mom hit on Long Island Iced Tea-more companies to sue! ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/46 "2006-01-11T01:43:36Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > 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 Indeed, she would then be a soulmate of my father’s cousin. BTW, the amount needed to get a (pretty skinny) 5-year-old drunk: 1½ Manhattans, on the rocks. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/47 "2006-01-11T01:59:57Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > 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 That was my thought as well, and though the whole thing sounds unlikely, a server doing it intentionally is easier to swallow than it being a mistake. Someone here got pitted for their supposed treatment of rude customers, but swore he wouldn’t take a parent’s behavior out on their kid(s). I’m sure there are others who _would_ if the mother was a bitch to them while assisting her. **The King of Soup** , five-year-olds aren’t toddlers. A one or two-year-old is a toddler and little therefore more than a infant, but by kindergarten age many kids are old enough to do as they’re told, even if it means eating or drinking something they don’t like. At just a little older than that I was made to eat broccoli and liver -both of which I hated- and though I cried, eat it I did. ---
**Author:** ![St.Urho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@St.Urho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Urho)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/48 "2006-01-11T14:45:20Z")
> [@Troy McClure SF](#): > > 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, \ Sure, but how often are juices served with ice? IME, not very often. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/49 "2006-01-11T15:40:08Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > **The King of Soup** , five-year-olds aren’t toddlers. Kids aren’t usually born talking, four and a half feet tall and 72 pounds? You know, I _thought_ my wife’s labor culminating her two pregnancies (three babies in twelve and a half months! Whee!) was awfully long. Well, that explains my lack of understanding when it comes to toddlers. Nonetheless, it was the _mother’s_ behavior that I was questioning, not the kid’s. I’ll leave your inevitable discovery of the potential willfulness of a five-year-old to the fullness of time and your own family. > [@elfkin477](#): > > At just a little older than that I was made to eat broccoli and liver -both of which I hated- and though I cried, eat it I did. My tenderest sympathies. Now finish your spinach. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/50 "2006-01-11T16:15:08Z")
I think the whole thing is bogus. And IF this child did indeed become intoxicated, the mother shouldn’t sue. As to the nurses bit: I am not an ER nurse, but I can say that we nurse do laugh often at work–but NOT AT THE PTS EXPENSE–even when we want to, badly. So, if the nurses were “giggling” (ugh-what are we, 12?)–it was NOT a the Kindergartner. And just how big were these sips? Is English these people’s first language? How big was the sippy cup? My 5 year olds never used sippies at that age–they gave those up in preschool. So many unanswered questions… ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/51 "2006-01-11T16:38:02Z")
Yeah, yeah, an’ anuddah t’ing … Has anyone here ever met the waitress that would intentionally create the hassle at one of her own tables that serving alcohol to a five-year-old might cause? Didn’t think so. A bartender who hated the waitress enough to intentionally cause this problem even though he probably had no knowledge of the customer and there was a good chance that he (being in charge of everything alcoholic) would get blamed? Didn’t think so. And in my experience, Long Island Iced Tea is not clear. In fact, it’s medium-dark. In fact, it’s made with cola. Which is carbonated, which is why the drink is made one at a time, not in a pitcher (unless the pitcher has been purchased by a table, and that doesn’t happen, and if it did the pitcher wouldn’t be sitting on the bar), which it wouldn’t do anyhow because whether or not it looks like apple juice, it sure as hell looks like – there will be a brief pause here while the poster recovers his composure – _iced tea_. So I’m not buying the accident theory either. ---
**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 11, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/52 "2006-01-11T17:24:31Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > As to the nurses bit: I am not an ER nurse, but I can say that we nurse do laugh often at work–but NOT AT THE PTS EXPENSE–even when we want to, badly. > > So, if the nurses were “giggling” (ugh-what are we, 12?)–it was NOT a the Kindergartner It should also be pointed out that if the nurses were unprofessional enough to tease or laugh at a 5 year old (a prospect which is unlikely in the extreme) then the mother’s grievance for “psychological trauma” would be against the hospital, not against the restaurant. Everything this mom is saying sounds like bullshit. I’d bet anything the nurses were just trying to be friendly to the kid and maybe laughed at something he said, not because he was “drunk” (which I doubt he really was) but because they were trying to make him feel good. That’s what you do with kids in situations like that. You try to be light and you laugh at their dumb jokes. It’s like an automatic instinct for people who work with a lot of children. ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/53 "2006-01-11T23:11:05Z")
I’d really like to know: is there an entire class of people whose minds are constantly trying to churn up some way to file lawsuits against large corporations as a means of lining their pockets? I mean, to me this is - inconceivable! Yet, I believe that’s exactly what this situation will prove to be. :dubious: ---
**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 11, 2006, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/54 "2006-01-11T23:12:42Z")
Every time someone files suit for some ridiculous perceived slight, we run around saying “Everyone’s suing! Everyone’s suing! We’re going to hell in a handbasket!” You know, there aren’t _that_ many crazy lawsuits out there, that receive public attention at least. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/55 "2006-01-12T02:00:42Z")
There may not be a lot of these suits out there, but all of them catch some media person’s attention and they get blown all out of proportion so that it seems like there are more of them. People still talk about the McD’s drive thru coffee incident from, like, 10 years ago. ---
**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 12, 2006, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/56 "2006-01-12T07:33:05Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > There may not be a lot of these suits out there, but all of them catch some media person’s attention and they get blown all out of proportion so that it seems like there are more of them. People still talk about the McD’s drive thru coffee incident from, like, 10 years ago. That wasn’t even a crazy lawsuit. The coffee was _much_ hotter than any coffee you would make at home or buy at any competing restaurant, far too hot to be reasonably safe. It caused serious burns on the lady’s nether regions. The case got a lot of play as “some idiot spilled her coffee in her lap and sued McDonald’s”–but the real story is that McDonald’s gave an old grandma a loaded weapon with the safety turned off. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kindergartener-gets-drunk-at-applebees-after-getting-a-li-iced-tea-in-his-juice-cup/339285/57 "2006-01-12T19:35:48Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > 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 The mom has said that the server was becoming increasingly agitated while junior was trying to decide what he wanted to drink. [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=2)