Say you go out at 9, stay out till close (2 a.m.) -- 4 drinks is fewer than 1 drink an hour. How in the hell is that binge drinking? Craxy, man.

Yeah, I feel like we've done this math before - a woman who has a cocktail with appetizers, 2 glasses of wine with dinner and a digestive with dessert is legally binge drinking in the US.

And I could see how drinking that much every night might be a problem (for your bank account if not your liver), but for a fancy night out? I wouldn't drive home, but I wouldn't consider it a wild and crazy night of drinking either.

Holy crap. $12 is probably Manhattan prices, but I paid $7 in Queens!

I've never been happy with a manicure in CA that cost less than $18. My usual place is $22, and a mani/pedi is $45. Now that I spend untold millions on my dogwalker, I only get a mani/pedi about every 6 weeks.

a woman who has a cocktail with appetizers, 2 glasses of wine with dinner and a digestive with dessert is legally binge drinking in the US.

It's not really a legal definition, is it? Just a guideline, I thought.

My dad's doctor thought my dad might have a drinking problem because my dad has one drink before dinner. My dad, coming from a family where even little kids drank wine with dinner, thought he was an idiot.

binge drinking isn't illegal, right? so guideline.

My dad's doctor thought my dad might have a drinking problem because my dad has one drink before dinner.

@@@@@@@@@@@

I had a situation like this with my psychopharm. It was a nightmare.

God, I am SUCH a rules-follower, even when they're rules that don't even exist!

I am too. I have totally waited in line to drop something off at the counter.

My grandparents were teetotallers, full-on official one side, and just nondrinkers on the other. My family? My parents used to off most of a bottle of wine over the course of an evening, and dad would sometimes have a scotch on occasion. Alcohol messes with my mom's already bad sleep, so they don't do that so much anymore. My mother loves beer too, "for the burps." But is positively goofy after one.

I think the only time my grandmother had alcohol was by accident. It was supposed to be lingonberry juice at one of her ladies' lodge teas. It had fermented. So you had all these drunken swedish ladies who had no idea what hit them.

I'm drinking beer right now AIFG.

I recall reading that in colonial days of America, most everyone including children drank beer or hard cider all the time. I don't know why; water from streams and rivers might sometimes be bad to drink, but well water was usually safe.

In European cities, long experience had shown that beer was safe to drink and water was not. It was quite accidental, in that most beer-making processes ended up boiling the water at some point, plus hops have antibacterial properties. Since they didn't know what made water dangerous, they viewed all water as dangerous. It was usually small beer, but they did drink beer and hard cider from morning to night, so I imagine they were slightly buzzed.

History trivia: The Pilgrims settled at Plymouth Rock because the captain of the Mayflower was afraid to spend any more time looking for a better spot, because the ship was running low on beer.

The Pilgrims settled at Plymouth Rock because the captain of the Mayflower was afraid to spend any more time looking for a better spot, because the ship was running low on beer.

Boy that explains a lot about Joe. Good to know he comes by it honestly.