Welcome Tipsygrrl!

Here are PG, we are thrilled to welcome Tipsygrrl, the latest writer to grace the site. Tipsygrrl is a Philly girl who’s had a little too much to drink. But in a good way. We think. Not sure, we’ll let you know how that AA  intervention goes.

Well, yes. I am a bit tipsy writing this post. Cliche as it seems, a bit of alcohol helps loosen things up. Clichés exist for a reason. And there are many things I’m not that bad at after I’ve had a drink. Or two. (After three… well, see this James Thurber quote.)

Drinking alcohol is pretty widely accepted in American culture, and indeed, in all Judeo-Christian societies. In Europe even more so, where adults readily give their kids sips of wine at their 10pm dinner hour. Jesus is worshiped for turning water into wine (among other things). For Muslims, the Qur’an presents a journey of thoughts about drinking, starting with a note that “the sin is greater than the profit” and ending with a call to total abstinence.

I’m not speaking from an alcohol-soaked soapbox here: I didn’t drink any liquor or alcohol for a period of around 3-4 years, from ages 20-23. Many may have been in college during these years, but I had already left for finer shores: to start my own business. While waitressing for a living.

So yeah, I worked in a restaurant where we got a free shift drink every day. I used to get cappuccinos. Granted, I was doing other, (should-be-classified-as) recreational drugs instead. Ahem. But my coworkers didn’t understand. They were mystified as to why I “refused” to drink. And that gets to the heart of it.

Drinking is social. It allows us to eschew many norms, mores and barriers of stilted societal interaction. We are more forgiving, likewise after we ourselves have had a drink and to those who we can tell have tipped one back.

Of course, there are circumstances when it’s unforgivable to be sloshed. Those include driving, of any sort. it’s incredibly dangerous, and the problem really is, whatever care or not you have for yourself, you put others at great risk. Though DUI penalties have helped, it’s still a widespread practice. I know. I lived in the suburbs for over 9 years. I did it.

Just one more reason to applaud the rise of urbanism. City life rules.
My cocktail needs a refill. I’m out.
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5 Responses to Welcome Tipsygrrl!

  1. Thurber’s wrong. Parker’s right. ‘I like to have a Martini, two at the very most; three, I’m under the table, four I’m under my host!’

  2. I prefer the martini/breast comparison, but that’s quite a good quote.

  3. Hello Tipsygirl! Good post indeed. Drinking is social and in most cases lets you break those social barriers, which almost invariably set in the first time you meet someone. Well said! back to my class of whiskey :-)

  4. I meant “Glass”. Im sure you would understand that :D

  5. A whiskey class doesn’t sound too bad, either…

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