drinking

Does Australia Have More Drunk Cokehead Ad People Than We Do?

Hamilton Nolan · 10/09/08 03:27PM

Everyone in the Australian ad industry is a drunk cokehead! Well, not quite everyone. But according to new survey, "Asked if they knew of work associates who had an alcohol problem, only 7 per cent of those working in media agencies were able to answer 'no.'" Thirty-six percent of the Aussie ad industry said either "yes" or "possibly" when asked if they drink too much. And a fifth said they've used drugs at work. This raises four very important sociological questions:

The Dark, Secret Life of The Hoff

ian spiegelman · 10/05/08 11:11AM

Now that her messy, messy divorce from Knight Rider/Baywatch star David Hasselhoff is finally over, Pamela Bach is freely dishing about the poor man's troubles. And, really, it behooves us to read every last detail. In 2002, for example, Hasselhoff called Bach from a hotel one dark night. "I'm drunk and I think I'm dying," he said. Then the line went dead. Berlin's most beloved singer went into rehab after that, but it didn't stick. "'I called the clinic and discovered he had checked out. I knew I had to go to him. I chartered a private plane and flew from LA to Palm Springs.’ Pamela learned that David had been taken to a local hospital, but didn’t know which one. ‘I got into a taxi and went to every hospital until I found him.’ "She discovered later that he’d drunk the entire contents of the minibar and had been found by a maid, semi-conscious and half-naked on the floor. The police had been called. This sordid episode, like so many before, was covered up by Pamela and a team of minders." And, says Bach, don't buy it if the Hoff seems to have gotten his act together lately: "To the woman who recently divorced him... Hasselhoff’s image as a self-aware, post-modern celebrity is a sham. ‘David is a falling-down drunk and I covered up for him for years. Alcoholism destroys you whether you are a regular Joe or the biggest star on the planet.’" Dayum, lady. Get a blog! [Daily Mail]

Diamond Dusted Liquor

cityfile · 09/25/08 12:28PM

What a perfect time to launch a decadent, extravagant product: Double Cross Luxury Vodka is filtered through diamond dust—just what we've always thought vodka was missing. [The Daily]

Would You Like A Little Alarmism With Your Red Bull?

cityfile · 09/24/08 09:24AM

Are you fond of the refreshing effects of a super-caffeinated beverage every now and again? Well, that probably means you're on your way to become a drug abuser. According to psychiatry professor Roland Griffiths, who's calling for caffeinated drinks to carry health warnings, energy drink consumption in college students "predicted subsequent non-medical use of prescription stimulants, like Ritalin." Horrifying! If only they were just smoking pot and moving on to injecting heroin, like previous generations.

Are You Surprised?

cityfile · 09/19/08 11:36AM

"'Vodka and scotch sales are up, there's no question about that,' said Chris Adams, executive vice president of Sherry-Lehmann Wines & Spirits... Traffic in his store has increased this month by 23 percent." [Crain's]

Wine, Online

cityfile · 09/11/08 10:58AM

Amazon.com plans to start selling wine later this year, now that the bans on out-of-state wine shipments to New York and Michigan have been struck down. Amazon will only be selling selections from California, so if you're into French or Italian varieties, you're out of luck. Oh, and no hard stuff. Just wine. You'll still have to head to your local liquor store for your vodka in plastic jugs. [WSJ]

Matt MacConaughey's Neighbors Fear His Awesome Influence

ian spiegelman · 09/07/08 11:17AM

Awesome dude Matthew MacConaughey is a man of simple pleasures. He likes to smoke a little something, enjoy a frosty beverage, play some bongos, and ride some tasty waves. So why are his Malibu neighbors getting all, like, uptight and totally hassling bro in the press? His surf buddy fans already did them all the favor of clearing the beach of pesky paparazzi by handing the shutterbugs some righteous beatdowns. Well, it seems the no-fun-loving neighbors are worried about the children. Won't someone please, please think of the children?

Reality Stars To Open Bar, New York To Weep

Richard Lawson · 08/29/08 10:13AM

Because Angels & Kings didn't quite drive the knife of inanity far enough into New York City's weakening heart, a new celebrity-backed bar is opening in Manhattan. I'm sorry, did I say celebrity? I meant Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, the tumbleweeds from MTV's high-gloss people-spoof The Hills. Don't worry, the planned "upscale sports lounge" isn't in your precious East Village like Pete Wentz's sadness factory.It's in Murray Hill (hills! the world is full of amazing connections!), whose state flower is the blue button-up shirt and official drink is the Totally Fucked Up, Man slinger. As Heidi is exactly as sexy as an unclothed Barbie doll, expect lots of hot girls and cool-as-Spencer dudes to frequent the joint. [W]

Things We Actually Like

Sheila · 08/21/08 02:56PM

We commend the latest listicle in the L Magazine's blog, "Awful Vodkas I Have Drank." We'd just like to add one more: 5 o'Clock Vodka. [L Mag]

College Presidents: Drinking Age a Major Bummer

cityfile · 08/19/08 10:36AM

In a move that flies in the face of everything that movies have taught us about university administrators, a coalition of college presidents is campaigning to have the drinking age reduced from 21 to 18. Notably absent from the list of signatories: the presidents of 19 of the Princeton Review's top 20 party schools. Class of 2013, expect a funnel and a ping-pong ball in your admission package! [NYDN]

"Pure" Booze

cityfile · 08/15/08 07:03AM

If we're to believe the result of a Daily News reporter's experiment, your liver actually knows the difference between regular beer, wine, and spirits and "organic" alcoholic drinks, which supposedly contain fewer additives and chemicals and pose less risk of a bad hangover. The risk of waking up in a stranger's bed? About the same. [NYDN]

Ad People: Drunks

Hamilton Nolan · 07/21/08 08:55AM

The ad industry is home to even more barely-functioning alcoholics than related fields like media or pest control. While the average reporter at least waits until his last story is filed to hit the bar, ad agencies are installing bars right there in-house, so shaky, sweating employees can get some sips of their sweet, sweet medicine to help them focus on the task of thinking up jingles. Ha, no really it's all a very glamorous, Mad Men type of swinging party thing. At least that's what they want you to think.

How To Take A Layoff With A Smile

Hamilton Nolan · 07/02/08 09:09AM

Yesterday's rumor of Hearst folding Quick & Simple magazine was quickly confirmed by several emails that poured in to our world news headquarters. (You know your magazine has problems when "rapidly rising paper prices" can do you in for good). But at least one staffer had such a P-M-A (Positive Mental Attitude, yall) that we feel compelled to share her note with you. Think of it as a shining example of how to feel good about a bad situation. With wine:

Beer Company Believes You Have Freakish Number Of Toes

Hamilton Nolan · 06/10/08 01:15PM

"You can almost count the calories on your fingers and toes," claims an ad for Miller Genuine Draft Light. Quite an ambitious statement! Or you could call it "totally false." But it all depends on how freakishly high your total number of fingers and toes is—perhaps some severely mutated babies born in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster could indeed make the claim true. MGD's full ad, with its boldly stated mathematical impossibility, is below.

Drunken Writers Celebrate Drunken Writer Den

ian spiegelman · 05/28/08 05:38PM

Lushy journalists turned out in force for Jack Bryan's documentary on the storied, now-shuttered hole of a watering hole Siberia when the flick premiered last night at Soho House. Gawker founding editor Elizabeth Spiers, former Page Sixer Chris Wilson, The New York Observer's George Gurley, publicist / bigtime author Sloane Crosley and a host of other party-loving media types showed up to watch themselves and their colleagues ramble nostalgically about the place that ruined so many young livers. Sadly, one member of that crowd was home with a mystery illness. "Former 'Page Six' reporter Ian Spiegelman opens the film: 'I don't even know how you could make a documentary about Siberia,' he says. 'I don't know how people have any memories of what happened there.'"

1947's Desk Of The Future

Hamilton Nolan · 05/27/08 11:12AM

Ah, the good old days of 1947: a simpler time, when titans sat astride the corporate world, and those titans had desks appropriate to men with superhuman prestige—desks that were acknowledgments of the widespread on-the-job alcoholism that was the style at the time. Modern Mechanix digs up a Popular Science story from '47 about an executive dream desk with everything a man could possibly desire: a 'work' side with a six-tube radio, Teletalk Intercommunication Master Unit, and electronic dictaphone; and a 'play' side with a wet bar and fridge. Oddly, the personal safe is also on the 'play' side, but the cigarette lighter is on the work side. A different culture. The cost of this masterwork? "Well into the four figures." Larger image of the story, after the jump.

Post Shuts Down Gossipeuse's Freebie Cocktail Party

Hamilton Nolan · 05/22/08 11:47AM

Popular Page Six gossip hack Paula Froelich had a party thrown in her honor last night, complete with her own signature cocktail: the IZZE FROLIC. Awww! She sent an email to all of her contacts saying, "It seems someone has decided to name a drink after me. I think we can use it as a good excuse to go play." But when the party happened, one boldface name was conspicuously absent: New York Post reporter Paula Froelich! So what happened? Bothersome ethics, of course.

Elderly Tastemakers Merrily Booze It Up

Hamilton Nolan · 05/19/08 12:31PM

Take a journey, if you will, into the secret inner chambers of New York's cultural elites. It's an exclusive club where well-dressed "raconteurs and bon vivants" chatter urbanely while tuxedoed waiters scurry about. Of course, their meetings are at noon on Tuesdays, their members are mostly over the hill, and they didn't admit women until 1991. Welcome to the Dutch Treat Club, the Algonquin Roundtable for 21st-century Manhattan olds who still like to drink and ogle girls!

The New Yorker's Guide to Hangovers

Sheila · 05/19/08 09:05AM

This week, Joan Acocella tackles hangovers in the New Yorker! We wonder: does the New Yorker's core audience even truly know about hangovers—other than the red wine-hangover, which is a completely different species from the, say, Long Island Iced Tea hangover, or the PBR-plus-gin variety? Anywho. Like many a New Yorker article, it painstakingly explains the mechanics and history of the subject of hand for way too long. However, it answers all the questions we need to know: does the hair of the dog cure really work? And what's up with Red Bull?

2 A.M.? But We Haven't Even Made Out Yet!

Rebecca · 04/17/08 11:00AM

Talk about a cock-block. Community boards are making it so hard for new Manhattan bars to get a liquor license that allows them to serve liquid happy until 4 a.m., because they hate the things that make New York better than everywhere else. Also something about noise pollution or whatever. But what about not-getting-any pollution? These new bars will have to close up at 2 a.m. and everyone knows that true love is only found in the hours between 2 and 4 a.m. And here we thought the city was trying to get us to use all those free condoms. [NYSun]