Oh, I suspected you’d be in. (Trying to work an image with a gin-based-MeanOldLady-batsignal, but it’s too early on Monday for my muse)
Flash this signal, and I’ll know someone is calling.
I posted in the other thread and I don’t think I’m killing myself. I used to drink about like the OP, maybe 4 beers in a week, with an occasional heavy drunk on a Saturday night at a party (say 6 beers). I don’t drink and drive. Rarely beat the kids, even when they deserve it, but now they are too big anyhow. I don’t drink “to forget” or anything like that, I just like the taste and the mellow buzz… a lot.
These days I can afford the good stuff, which is extremely tasty. I can buy good wine, the best booze, top quality beer (which couldn’t be found 20 years ago) and I like them all. Over the years I’ve found myself indulging my tastes more and more, to the point that I think it’s affecting my life in ways that are not good (“Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life”.) That’s what I thought the other thread was about.
I guess, and in the interests of full disclosure, I should mention I workout fairly regularly. Biking and freeweights can cover for a multitude of sins.
This is something I find extremely annoying – people who have an attitude that it’s not a fun occasion unless there’s alcohol involved.
And the ones that think if you’re not drinking you’re ruining their good time.
I don’t drink well. I have an extremely low tolerance for alcohol and it makes me very boring and sleepy. Just to top off the situation I also dislike the taste of beer and wine. I have however used it as Silver Fire did when I need to sleep but I can’t.
I don’t notice the issue much anymore but many times in the past I have found it necessary to get my coke or soda water in the same type of glass the bar served mixed drinks in, just to divert the obnoxious people who couldn’t believe that I could have a good time without booze.
+1 
I’m like MeanOldLady. I have a drink with dinner, sometimes two, more often than not. Occasionally three, if they taste good and I’m not feeling tipsy after two. I like good beer and cheap wine. 
I never wake up hung over, have never missed work due to drinking and wouldn’t dream of it, and rarely have more than three drinks unless it’s a special occasion. I stop at tipsy. Don’t remember the last time I got sick from alcohol. Probably college. Wouldn’t dream of drinking and driving. I just like the taste.
These, and the folks that won’t leave you alone of you’re not imbibing are assholes, and would be even if alcohol hadn’t been invented.
Lately I haven’t been drinking so much, but it’s not a result of anything, I’m just not. I have had stretches where I’ll have a glass of wine or two in a night, or sometimes a beer or a cocktail. It’s never seemed like a problem to me, but I have some friends who try to convince me that ever drinking anything when you’re alone is pathetic (and maybe a problem). I find that ridiculous, because instead of waiting until I’m out with people to start downing the liquor, I’m having one or two whenever I feel like it just because I like it. Alcohol is not an event for me, it’s an occasional indulgence.
How YOU doin?
I do love to get my drink on, but I haven’t been doing it much lately. I used to make my own beer, but due to finances and being depressed I gave it up for awhile. I thought having a few beers every day wasn’t helping as well. It didn’t help, so I know drinking isn’t a crutch, it’s just enjoyment for me.
Euphonious Polemic and Friar Ted, you’ve done a nice job of translating for me. The edited afterthought I had was reflecting how it is always “someone else” who dies from alcoholism. Someone who doesn’t have the socially stellar habits that I do.
It’s an odd little habit, using a mood-altering, potentially harmful chemical. Hardly seems appropriate for people seeking truth and rationality.
Yes, people can use it in moderation. The majority, I believe, do. But I have rarely met a person who needs to defend its use and continue to use succeed in that.
Aw heck, my eyebrows just keep pointing skyward on this one.
Okay, we need avatars on this board so that I can make that one mine. Edit: In response to TOJ.
Edit again: Thud, agreed. The only thing drinking has ever done for my feelings is magnify them. There is no way in hell I could ever drink to “escape” feelings I didn’t want to deal with. It would only make me feel ten times worse.
When people say things like “I drank to get away from feelings that I didn’t want to feel,” I can’t relate, because drinking doesn’t really change the way I feel. The only way drinking really works as an escape for me is if I drink enough that it makes me sleepy, and then I go to sleep. So I suspect that alcoholism isn’t even available to me as a possibility. And I’m somewhat envious of people who do get a big effect from alcohol—but not enough to want to trade places with them.
But I don’t think this thread was started for people who need to defend its use. Rather, the OP was observing that so much of the commentary around booze in this forum is centered around addiction, and was looking for anecdotal perspective on who, apart from him, enjoys booze without struggling with negative effects.
I enjoy booze, and I drink pretty frequently. I’ve become something of a snob about it over the years, preferring to limit myself to the Good Stuff. I love going out for cocktails and exploring various concoctions, and I prefer to have wine with a good meal.
As far as thinking it odd that people use a mood-altering substance… well, that’s part of the point. It’s enjoyable, it’s relaxing, and in the right context it can lend an interesting perspective. Truth doesn’t always have a button-down collar. Sometimes truth takes off its tie and shouts “Woohoo!”
But when Truth wears it around it’s head like a Samurai, we laugh and point because, hey, Truth is stuck in the 80’s.
As far as Mood Altering chemicals are concerned, do I need to feel guilt over Coffee, Chocolate and Waygu Beef too? How bout Saffron? In Bacon there is truth.
I enjoy booze without being an addict to it. I’ve been an addict - to tobacco - so I know very well the difference.
My favorite song on the topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev0M2eGJC7M&feature=related
Drinking seems to enhance feelings, not hide them. At least, that’s the case for me. If I’m with a good group, alcohol can make things a lot more fun! Sometimes I drink alone too (and when I drink alone, I prefer to be all by myself).
I’ve never really found myself addicted to the stuff though. Not even when I got drunk about four times a week for two weeks.
Preach it! I loves me some bacon. Nice and smoky, so thick you can consider it load-bearing.
However…
Good plus good does not always equal better. I love bacon, and I love Manhattans. But the bacon Manhattan served by the Town Talk Diner is, sad to say, an abomination.
Let us not forget the bacon martini tragey. Just say no to bacon cocktails.