I have a new hero: Barbara Holland, author of The Joy of Drinking.
From today's Washington Post >[link]
Booze, she writes, is "the social glue of the human race." As soon as humans stopped wandering around looking for berries and settled down to raise crops, they started creating wine and beer and, not coincidently, civilization.
"Probably in the beginning, we could explain ourselves to our close family members with grunts, muttered syllables, gestures, slaps and punches," she writes. "Then, when the neighbors started dropping in to help harvest, stomp, stir and drink the bounty of the land, after we'd softened our natural suspicious hostility with a few stiff ones, we had to think up some more nuanced communication, like words. From there, it was a short step to grammar, civil law, religion, history and 'The Whiffenpoof Song.' ''
eta: My complete lack of formatting ability might indicate that I have been drinking, even though so far I've had nothing stronger than Diet Coke.
![[link]](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.learner.org/jnorth/images/graphics/c/crane_OrigamiWhoop.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/crane/OrigamiCrane.html&h=561&w=640&sz=18&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=kzcX7_sh8rOOSM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcrane%2Borigami%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG){kind=link}