I think the increase in the drinking age has done a lot to encourage binge drinking. When the drinking age was 18, colleges did more to control drinking on campus and the drink of choice tended to be beer. Now it's more hard liquor, which is easier to hide. As with drugs, when something is illegal, it can't be regulated.

I think the increase in the drinking age has done a lot to encourage binge drinking. When the drinking age was 18, colleges did more to control drinking on campus and the drink of choice tended to be beer. Now it's more hard liquor, which is easier to hide. As with drugs, when something is illegal, it can't be regulated.

I suspect you're right, Ginger. And I was in college just when the drinking age was going up: I had it raised on me two years in a row: just as I got legal (my birthday is in December) the age went up a year on January 1. The third year, I finally got grandfathered in, so I could drink legally my last full year of college.

At any rate, my point was that in the early/mid 80s beer was still the drink of choice but as time passed I guess the pendulum swung to liquor for logistical reasons. Makes sense.

On the down side, the higher drinking age probably means that more students are drinking and driving, since they can't drink legally on campus...

the higher drinking age probably means that more students are drinking and driving, since they can't drink legally on campus...

Or on my campus, drinking and walking...and doing things like being loud and pissing in the neighbors' yards. Ah, town-gown relations...

I drank a lot of Strawberry Hill and cheap vodka in college. But yeah, I got a 1.8 GPA my first semester through too much partying -- I wasn't really a partier, nor did I have many friends in HS, and the combo of friends and alcohol really went to my 18 y.o. head.

Luckily, driving home for Xmas break, my dad gave me a come-to-Jesus talk, which basically involved "If you don't get your GPA up next semester, we're not paying anything towards college. Get your shit together."

Add to that my dad was an alcoholic (beat it in 1983, sober since then, and I am VERY LEERY of what I know is a genetic predisposition to alcoholism) I got it. Cut way back, still had fun, but nailed a 3.8 my second semester freshman year.

The change I've heard is that college drinking, at least for women, isn't about beer. It's mostly hard alcohol, because it's perceived as less filling/fattening. And because the drinking age is so high, they binge at their dorms before they go out. So multiple shots of vodka or something, in a short period; you can get a lot more hammered quickly on hard alcohol than on beer, because it's just not comfortable to drink that much beer fast.

This was my experience in college (1989-1993, FWIW). But Miami is a HELLA party school.

I don't remember drinking much beer in college. College drinking was shots for the people who could handle it, and mixed drinks for the people who couldn't.

Heh. I drank a LOT of beer in college, and senior year would switch to mixed drinks for a lark. Alabama Slammers were a big theme. Oh god, and those Blue Hawaiians that were $2 at Saloon on Tuesday nights. (I can still remember some of the drink specials, almost 20 years after graduating. That is so fucking sad.)

But mostly beer.

come-to-Jesus talk

I used this term the other night, and Tim had never heard it before. (He was confused because through context it was clear that the talk wasn't literally about Jesus.) Then I had a really hard time explaining it. It ended up with me yelling "PRAISE Jesus! PRAISE HIM!!!" at the top of my lungs. I can only imagine what our neighbors think of us.

Heh.

Some interesting context on Paterno: [link]

I drank mostly beer in university, but our drinking age is 19. My forays into hard liquor were never pretty. (Haven't had tequila or gin since.)

We drank beer at college except during rush when the frats had grain alcohol punch which lead to lots of freshmen puking in the hedges.

John Hodgman is interviewed at AV Club and he clears up the end times for us:

*********

JH: Well Nick Nolte is, obviously, the human avatar of Quetzalcoatl, the ancient Mesoamerican winged serpent. Quetzalcoatl, being of course the ancient Nahuatl word for “feather boa.”

AVC: I think that was made clear in the mug shot.

JH: That’s when people were like, “Oh, wait a minute. That guy looks like he might be an interdimensional being.” And he’s also riding around on a plumed iguana, so that tipped a lot of people off. When he started showing up at red-carpet events with snakes growing out of his beard and riding around on a giant, plumed iguana, that’s when we knew.

I started at Marquette in the fall of 1984, right after the WI legislature upped the drinking age (WI was the last state to change to 21, IIRC). I was grandfathered in, and since half of my class was of age due to that clause, drinking proceeded for us much like it did for the classes before us. However, by my senior year, university-sponsored drinking events were pretty much nonexistent (freshman year, they were many), row-house parties were even more popular than before, and social frats and sororities were starting to make their first appearance on campus (before then, it was the Evans Scholars and the engineering frat house that were the party places).