The Disgusting Alcoholic Beverage (DAB, perhaps) seems to be having a moment. Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark have achieved minor Internet fame — and now a Times writeup — for their McNuggetini, a chocolate shake with vanilla vodka, barbecue sauce on the rim, and a chicken McNugget garnish. They've also cooked up such upsetting concoctions as the Ham Daiquiri and the Bloody Bacon and Cheese. And they're not alone — bacon has now infiltrated both cocktails and beer. These DABs all wear their grossness with pride — they aim to be, if not players in what's supposedly the current cocktail revolution, at least an entertaining sideshow. But as anyone who's ever tried to drink before the legal drinking age knows, the true DAB is born of desperation — when there's no decent alcohol around, and no reliable means to purchase it, and all you have are your wits and some liquids that really shouldn't be mixed.

The grossest drink that ever passed my lips was Jager mixed with Red Bull — I know this is semi-popular, but it tasted more like poison than anything I've ever had before or since. My college friends, however, used to try to stretch a dwindling booze supply with a much grosser libation they called "church wine" — Carlo Rossi jug red mixed with Dr. Pepper. This swill actually ate through a paper cup one night while my roommate and I slept — inexplicably, one of us had been unwilling to finish it — trickled into my roommate's underwear drawer, and stained her bra. So I've always associated the Disgusting Alcoholic Beverage with squalid — and booze-stained — high school and college living.

If the rest of the staff is any indication, I'm not far off. Anna's unfavorite drink of all time is "malt liquor beverages with flavoring." While I agree that these are empirically gross, they'll always have a soft spot in my heart for their role at crappy high school parties. Says Margaret, "The only drink underage Wellesley students with no car could construct was a 'screwdriver' made of fake orange juice stolen from the dining hall and vodka that came in a giant plastic jug. Pour in a funky-smelling Nalgene bottle and serve." And in a similar but slightly worse vein, Katy once ran out of other options and decided to melt orange popsicles to mix with vodka. The verdict: "It was horrible." Some, however, had more high-concept, perhaps more McNuggetini-like DABs to report. Sadie says, "I used to know this sweet old lady who loved these vile Finlandia chocolates filled with sweetened Vodka and would always give them to me. One night, my friends and I made a shot from emptying about 15 of them per glass. It was...not good." But the winner, in my opinion, is Dodai, who writes,

my junior high school friend created a "punch" inspired by those chocolate oranges you see during the holidays. this meant: orange juice, mandarin orange slices, and, the kiss of death: KAHLUA. it was vile.

Consider yourselves warned.

Mixing Meaty Cocktails With A Shot Of Celebrity [NYT]

Police launched a campaign last month to warn women of the possible dangers of drinking too much at the office Christmas bash.

Lady Stern said: 'Being drunk is voluntary and people who become drunk are responsible for their actions. It is not the alcohol that commits the rape.

'It is not an excuse. It used to be regarded as such, but it is not an excuse. It is an aggravating factor.'

The Daily Mail illustrates this with a photo of models kissing under a mistletoe. While this may have not been their intention, the throwaway line as well as the choice of accompanying picture serves to trivialize the subject of the article. Instead of focusing on why the task force chose to make such a statement, the Mail talks of "sex breathalyzers" and allows the last word to reinforce that "If a man is responsible for his conduct when drunk, so is a woman." You can guess what the comments are like.

The Guardian (wisely choosing to use a photo of a man drinking) reports the same facts with a slightly different spin. Here, the focus is on a discussion of rape culture in general, and its pervasiveness in where a drinking culture overlaps with discussions of rape and victim blaming. The Guardian includes Lady Stern's full argument which sheds some more light on the intent:

"Being drunk is voluntary and people who become drunk are responsible for their actions. It is not the alcohol that commits the rape. It is not an excuse. It used to be regarded as such, but it is not an excuse . It is an aggravating factor."

Stern said that clear consent had to be obtained for sex regardless of how well couples know each other. A man could not assume a woman's consent.

"I don't think there is any ambiguity. You can't have sex with someone who hasn't said yes and this it. There is no grey area."

The full report is due in February. Hopefully, Lady Stern will also replace the idea that "an absence of no is as good as a yes" with the idea that an actual yes trumps all.

Drunk men who insist on sex 'are rapists and cannot use alcohol as an excuse', says govt. adviser [Daily Mail]
Drunk men who demand sex from partner should be 'treated as rapists' [Guardian]
How Does The Change Happen? [Yes Means Yes]

Binge-drinking is on the rise amongst young girls, and clearly draconian health warnings and parental punishment isn't doing the trick. So, plan B: and at Worcestershire's Malvern St James School for Girls, that means after-hours wine-tasting sessions for 16-and-ups. Says teacher Rachel Huntley, according to the Independent,

We want to introduce the girls and their friends to good wines and their complexity, and educate them to develop an interest in the making of the wines rather than them seeing wine as something that you knock back in the summer holidays without thinking...As an all-girls' school, we have recognised that our children are under enormous pressure to conform to a drinking culture which has huge adverse health and social effects,

The girls in the class learn about bouquet, color and palate, and try the wines with foods (cooked in another class) from similar regions. Some of them include students from a local boys' school. Says Huntley, "Far better to enjoy a candlelit dinner with boys in the form of a quiz night blind wine-tasting than rely on the awful discos which are the standard diet in many schools."

When I wrote a British friend, I immediately got the response, "unlikely to challenge time-honored tradition of cider in park. But good idea."

Wine-Tasting Club Is The Toast Of Top Independent Girls' School [Independent]

Drinking while pregnant has become almost synonymous with bad motherhood, at least in the U.S., where one glass of wine in a restaurant can send the eyebrows of nearby diners shooting through the roof (yes, I have observed this first hand). Apparently, this is also true in the U.K. In a piece in the Guardian, Catherine Phipps explores the ins and outs of alcohol consumption and the ever-changing guidelines designed to protect the fetus and scare the mother.

The British Department of Health (DOH) currently advises mothers to abstain from drinking entirely, as does the U.S. Center for Disease Control. In response to the question: "Is it okay to drink when pregnant?" the CDC admonishes: "No, there is no safe level of alcohol use during pregnancy. Women who are pregnant or plan on becoming pregnant should refrain from drinking alcohol." However, Phipps points out that this often is, for all practical purposes, often translated as "we don't want you to drink, but if you must, limit it to 1-2 units, once or twice a week." Indeed, the "1-2 units" has become common wisdom. Drinking is a bad idea, but some alcohol is safe. It's just not clear how much.

Phipps points to another piece of official advice, which is rife with contradictions:

It gets muddier - this document (pdf) from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), doesn't advise total abstinence throughout the nine months. At one point, it recommends not exceeding 1-2 units once or twice a week, and in the next, advises not drinking "more than 7.5 units of alcohol on a single occasion" - couldn't this unnecessary binge drinking warning be taken to imply that drinking up to that amount is fine?

But the government - in both the U.S. and Great Britain - still tells women just say no. Why? Phipps concludes its out of paternalism and basic lack of trust. If women are told not to drink at all, surely they will drink less, right?

Except this has resulted in a strange fanaticism on the part of non-mothers. While most doctors are okay with a drink now and then, bartenders have been known to refuse to serve visibly pregnant women, and strangers have come to think its somehow their job to police a woman's alcohol intake simply because she's with child. According to Phipps, Americans are the worst when it comes to meddlesome behavior. She mentions a restaurant in New York that displays a sign reading: "Pregnant women please do not ask our waiting staff to harm your unborn child by ordering alcohol." Although women in the U.K. feel the pressure, it makes sense that our country, so prone to extremes and dichotomies, would have a particularly difficult time understanding a woman's right to moderation. It is also a disheartening reminder that women are still seen, even when in the throes of motherhood, as somehow child-like and in need of constant guidance. Ultimately, Phipps argues in favor of letting a woman decide for herself — even if that means serving her a gin and tonic. Naturally, we're inclined to agree.

Alcohol And Pregnancy - Conflict And Confusion [Guardian]
Alcohol And Public Health - FAQs [CDC]

I Heart Guts explains herself thusly:

The guts grew from a single drawing of a broken heart, after a string of bad hookups, dead-end relationships and lame-o boyfriends. At the time, I was also doing a lot of drinking, so a sad liver and bummed-out lung followed.

Sounds like our kind of lady. I'm raising my it's-after-noon cup o' Blog Juice to you, whoever you are!

Meanwhile, I think I have an EGG PREPARING TO ESCAPE, so, let me get right on that.

I Heart Guts [Official Site]

Via: The Good Ol' Menstrual Cycle [Street Anatomy]

• New data from Britain shows that the number of violent crimes committed by women has risen 81% in the last decade. Conservative politicians suggest that this is directly linked to a rise in binge drinking, which doesn't fully explain why the article is illustrated with a picture of a woman passed out drunk on a park bench. •  A woman spent her wedding night in a Spanish jail cell after she grabbed a cop by his neck and slapped him. The police officer was attempting to break up a fight that had broken out between members of the bride's family and relatives of the groom. We think this would make a great (read: horrible) rom-com, very Bridezillas meets Romeo and Juliet. • According to a recent study, pregnant lesbians are sick of being treated differently than heterosexual mothers. Researchers found that most lesbian couples have felt frustrated at some point or another with the uncomfortable way that midwives and doctors dealt with them. • Experts have disproved claims that Ida, a fossil recently discovered in Germany, was the missing piece that would link the evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes, and humans. In fact, Ida is the "about as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be." • 

• Iranian police warned shopkeepers today not to use any mannequins with visible curves. Mannequins are also barred from appearing in windows without a headscarf. • In response to an abysmally low conviction rate for reported rapes, British officials have ordered a review of how rape victims are treated by authorities from the moment they report the assault onward. • Elizaveta Mukasei, who, with her husband, Mikhail, spied during the cold war for the KGB, has died at 97. The New York Times calls the Mukaseis "one of the most famous husband-and-wife duos in the history of espionage." • A new study reveals that more adults than previously thought (three out of five) have suffered from depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol addiction or marijuana abuse at some point in their lives. Previous studies had placed the number much lower, but they also did not follow participants over time, which doctors believe has lead to a more accurate picture of American's mental health. • Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor, who is a Yankees fan, is scheduled to throw out the first pitch on Saturday before New York's game against the Boston Red Sox. • A three-year custody battle over Dexter the pug has finally come to a close. A judge ruled that the dog will spend five weeks at a time with each of his owners. • Swedish female soldiers are demanding that the military provide them with combat-tested bras because the sports bras they're forced to buy unhook too easily. Men are provided with military-issue underwear, but there are no military-issue bras, so women have to buy their own. • According to the Census Bureau, 27% of gay couples say they are in a relationship "akin to husband-and-wife." This number is much higher than the number of gay couples who have been legally married, and analysts say it reflects the couples who would get married if they were granted equal rights. However, there were fewer same-sex couples reported this year than last, but that may be because fewer straight couples checked the wrong box on their forms. • Researchers have found that mice who are fed alcohol at a young age are more likely to make stupid decisions when they reach adulthood. Although this does not mean people who drink as teens grow up to be risk-takers, it does open up the possibility that the two things are related. • Tanning salons generally do not allow minors to visit without parental permission, but once they are in the door, they do not limit the number of tanning sessions allowed, a recent undercover operation found. •  A girls school in Pakistan was the target of another terrorist attack this Tuesday. Authorities believe the building was blown up by Islamist militants. • Researchers say when people are stressed they actually choose less familiar foods rather than "comfort foods." Study participants were asked to rate the level of change in their lives, then choose between American potato chips and British chips with odd flavors like Camembert and plum. Those experiencing more change were more likely to choose the unusual chips. • Australia's parliament will debate a bill that will decide whether two Kenyan woman can stay in the country as refugees, or if they will be forced to return and undergo female genital mutilation. Grace Gichuhi is seeking asylum because the Mungiki sect that killed her mother for refusing FGM wants to murder her for the same reason. She and fellow Kenyan Teresia Ndikaru Muturi both fled the country, but they'll be deported unless the parliament votes to expand refugee protection laws. • Researchers say people who are dieting should beware of naturally skinny friends who eat too much. 210 students participated in experiments in which a thin or overweight researcher ate snacks with them while watching a movie. The subject's portion choices mimicked the researcher's, but they adjusted and took a smaller portion if the researcher was overweight. • British Attorney General Baroness Scotland has been fined £5,000 for employing a housekeeper who wasn't allowed to work in the U.K. She didn't know it when she hired the housekeeper, but didn't keep a copy of her documents as required by law. • More women are murdered by men in Louisiana than anywhere else in the United States, according to a report from the Violence Policy Center. The national rate of women being murdered by men is 1.3 per 100,000, but in 2007 Louisiana's rate was 2.53 per 100,000. Alaska and Wyoming had the second and third highest rates. • A 19-year-old Indian girl confessed that she and her 20-year-old boyfriend strangled seven members of her family who opposed their relationship. They are charged with murdering her mother, father, grandmother, and four other relatives after lacing the family meal with a sedative. The family wouldn't let them marry because they belong to the same gotra, a group descended from a common ancestor. • Ron Paul on his appearance in the film Brüno: "I don't feel good about it because I was the subject of a trick, and nobody likes to be tricked. I understand they're not making a tremendous amount of money off this movie, so maybe the American people aren't as cynical as they assumed." •

Brownell, author of Mommy Doesn't Drink Here Anymore, writes in Women's eNews,

Since becoming a mother five years before, I've longed to hang on to a part of myself that isn't smeared in Mommy goo. The part that laughs at parties, looks good in heels and earns a living while spending quality time with loved ones. I want to be the anti-June Cleaver, the un-wife, the un-mother, loving and present, but not invisible or brainless.

And while it is gravely oversimplifying to say this is why I drink, drinking does begin as a bulwark against the onslaught of mama drones, an enjoyable evening ritual, a life raft—cheaper and easier to do with young children than yoga or running. Only later does it become the best part of every day.

If Brownell's experience is any guide, far from keeping women from drinking, the stereotype of the mother as angel in the house may actually drive them to it. For her, drinking was a way of recapturing an old identity, an identity partially erased by society's assumptions that moms are no fun, don't look good in heels, and are brainless.

Cheever (a sober alcoholic whose father John Cheever had alcohol problems too) focuses mainly on America's widespread acceptance of drinking — and, in some situations, even of drinking and driving — but she also offers a telling speculation about Schuler's thought process:

Diane Schuler was a mother of two small children who loaded her own kids and three others into her minivan for a long drive home from a camping trip. Small children, because they are so tied to our hearts, have the ability to drive us crazy with their complaints and carsickness and impatience. (Small kids are special in this regard.) Perhaps to fortify herself for the drive, Schuler reached for vodka and pot, substances she had probably used in the past. It may not seem obvious to someone who has never had a drinking problem, but for a woman whose most reliable support had become alcohol, it could make a kind of sad, twisted sense.

Dealing with kids, Cheever points out, is hard. It's especially hard when your "marriage starts having more bad days than good," as Brownell's and possibly Schuler's did. And for some moms, alcohol can be a refuge from these difficulties. In an old but highly worth-reading article, also in Women's eNews, Gretchen Cook writes that "society has generally stereotyped alcoholics as the guy curled up with his bottle on Skid Row," and this severely hampers efforts to help women like Schuler. Cook talks to Tracey Deschaine, a nurse who has worked in recovery centers and who says that the Alcoholics Anonymous approach most popular for treating alcoholism isn't well-suited to women. She's especially critical of the First Step, which requires AA members to admit powerlessness over alcohol. She tells Cook,

Women have known all along they're powerless, that's part of the reason they fall victim to drugs or alcohol. They need to be told they have power inside them to get well. And in the Fourth Step, you have to go out and emotionally flog yourself. Nobody has to tell women to flog themselves. They do it all the time.

While the idea that all women emotionally flog themselves is a stereotype itself, it's worth noting that AA encourages people to embrace a feeling many women struggle against: the feeling that outside forces control their lives. Some of these outside forces — damaging assumptions about motherhood, lack of readily available childcare help, higher expectations of mothers than of fathers — need to be challenged, not accepted. Only when we recognize that mothers aren't perfect, and that they sometimes use dangerous coping mechanisms to deal with the very real stresses of their lives, will we be able to stop Diane Schuler's tragedy from repeating itself.

"How Could She?" Well, I Have A Theory [Salon]
At First, Drinking Made It Easier to Be a Mom [Women's eNews]
New Research Confirms Alcohol Is Gender-Sensitive [Women's eNews]

Earlier: Why Are We So Shocked When Moms Drive Drunk?

• When presented with the dress, bride Lin Rong "laughed and cried at the romantic gesture." Her husband-to-be said: "I do not want a cliche wedding parade or banquet." • Following the success of a similar pilot program, DC officials have announced that they plan to offer STD testing to all high school students in the coming school year. Cue the denial driven parental outrage. • A new study found that 60% of black parents said that they would consider volunteering at their children's schools, up from 23% in 2008. Researchers believe this is part of the Obama Effect. • Little Orphan Annie turned 85 yesterday! The "Annie" comic strip first appeared on Aug. 5, 1924. Creator Harold Gray originally planed on publishing a strip called "Little Orphan Otto," but he changed it at the last minute on his editor's suggestion. •  The Australian government has forged a partnership with soccer authorities in attempts to encourage more girls (and women) to play football. • In order to better understand the life of Muslim women, three British police women donned robes and hijabs for a day. The exercise, called "In Your Shoes," has drawn some criticism. "This is a complete waste of police time and taxpayers' money," said Douglas Murray of the Center for Social Cohesion. "It's not the duty of police to empathize with particular sections of the community." • The British Trade Union Congress is considering a motion to ban stiletto heels from the work place as a health hazard to women. Some women are saying, "From my cold, dead feet." • A female stripper from Australia has been found not guilty of raping the best man at a bachelor party where she was hired to perform. The victim claims that, after sticking a sex toy into his anus against his protests, Linda Naggs told him it was "just a joke," and told him not to worry, "only you and I know." • Denver Radio Station KTNI decided to scrap its indie music format in favor of "Classic Non Stop Stripper Hits, from the 80's, 90's and today." They're now going by 101.5 The Pole. • Sam, the koala made famous by this photograph, has passed away during surgery to remove several cysts caused by chlamydia. • Two important advertisers have pulled their support of radio network Austereo, following the forced confession of a 14-year-old girl that she had been raped during a lie detector segment of the Kyle and Jackie O Show. • Newspaper editor Chansa Kabwela is currently on trial for distributing images of a woman giving birth in a parking lot after she was turned away from a hospital. Zambia president Rupiah Banda deemed the images pornographic and called for charges to be brought against Kabwela. • Lula Mae Battle, 81, had charges against her dropped when prosecutors learned that her public urination arrest was due to age-related incontinence. • A woman in Texas has been charged with mutilating her infant while high on drugs. Yes, another one. • A woman from New York was ticketed for breastfeeding in a parked car. Although she admits they were in a "no standing" zone, Marta Lily and Enrique Velez pleaded with the officer not to ticket them, and offered to move while he was busy writing out the forms. • Saudi citizen Mazen Abdul-Jawad is facing more than 200 charges for appearing on a Lebanese television show discussing the fact that he's had sex and liked it. Abdul-Jawad is the divorced father of 4. • New research shows that although baby-making declines as countries achieve certain levels of wealth, it goes up again once they get really rich. • Lori Drew wants her internet access back. The Internet doesn't want her. • Daniela Earnest of Tulare, California learned that California regulations really are as bad as conservative commentators warn: local officials shut down her corner lemonade stand, which she opened to pay for tickets to Disneyland, because it lacked the proper business permits. Although the city is contemplating a change to the law, a local radio station traded her family 4 tickets to Disneyland in exchange for 30 cups of lemonade. • Be warned: The story I'm about to link to may offend some with its absurdly bad puns: According to a new study, women who down one or two glasses of wine a day have better sex lives than those who abstain. •

According to the Times, Gary was denied a transplant because he "wasn't able to prove to doctors that he had the drive and determination to stop drinking," of which his mother, Madeline, says "they were playing God, making an example of him." In order to qualify, Gary would have had to live "alcohol-free in the community" for six months; but he didn't have six months, and was in the hospital. Despite public appeals by Madeline and his doctors that the rules be waived and Gary - by virtue of his extreme youth, and physical inability to meet this requirement - get a shot at a transplant, he died before they bore fruit. This angers some who point to the fact that despite this official sanctimony, the famously hard-drinking soccer star George Best was granted a transplant (which echoes a similar outcry when alcoholic Mickey Mantle received a new liver in short order.) Donation is especially fraught in the UK because organs are in short supply - an artificial liver didn't work - and short of enacting a Never Let Me Go scenario, this seems unlikely to change without significant scientific progress.

By any standard, Gary drank a lot: by his father's count, three bottles of vodka a day, then lager; doctors say his was one of the most advanced cases of cirrhosis they'd ever seen in a patient his age. Madeline traces her son's problems to his parent's divorce, when he was forced to give up the martial arts he loved. Introverted and angry, he started drinking at 13, and serious behavior problems followed. His mother's words to the Daily Mail (who seemed to be waiting ghoulishly outside his hospital room) are the sad refrain of many struggling single moms:

No, I wasn't there when they came home from school, but that was because I was working. What was I supposed to do? I needed to keep a roof over our heads. They needed to eat. I guess I could have sat around sponging off the state, but that's never been me...It was always a treadmill, I had no money. State help? You must be joking. I had to work then come home, cook, clean, run after three boys. And do you know how much boys eat? It was hard. I could only do it if I was in bed by 10pm, so I was most nights. And my son Gary? Well, he wasn't in himself by that time mostly. He fended for himself a lot.'

His father says, "To be honest, this is drug country. We were more worried about heroin. Alcohol? It's bad, but it's not that bad. When Madeline would say he'd gone off on one again, I thought it was just a matter of time till he calmed down. Boys are boys; they drink a bottle of cider behind the bike sheds. I thought it was nothing more."

It was; soon the teen needed a drink to get out of bed. Afraid of angering or provoking him, his mother didn't try, after awhile, to curb it, even after he was expelled from school. His father seems to have been basically MIA; his two younger brothers say he reacted to their interventions with abuse. By the time he saw a doctor, he was jaundiced, his liver was shot and his only chance was a transplant. His mother says this was a wake-up call, that he talked about starting college and changing his ways. "'People say how could he not have known, but he was a child. Like so many other youngsters who drink, he never understood the consequences."

On the internet, plenty of strangers are blaming the parents, charging them with negligence - with his mother, not surprisingly, coming in for the lion's share of the blame. Anyone who has been a single parent or known an alcoholic knows it's far from that simple - and the fact that Gary's two brothers seem stable and well should spike some people's guns. "Should" something have been done sooner? Yes - but by the time Gary died, he was an adult - and clearly Gary wasn't the only one in denial about the consequences. Those who feel an alcoholic shouldn't get a liver over someone with a more "organic" illness? Well, he didn't: surely that should seem like justice enough at a time when his parents are surely already wracked with guilt and will be for the rest of their lives. As even the Daily Mail points out, this was also a failure of the system: as much schools who didn't want to deal with a troublemaker as parents who turned a blind eye to what was obviously troubled and dangerous behavior. What is at fault as much as anything, of course, is an institutionalized drinking culture that's increasingly out of control: according to the Times, the last five years have seen a 27% increase in alcohol-related hospitalizations in young people, and binge-drinking amongst young women has seen a particularly sharp rise. Yes, the end of early last-calls may help curb synchronized 11-pm vomiting, but any young person who's grown up with binge drinking as the primary means of socializing isn't going to suddenly start worrying about the effect on his body. If Gary Reinbach's death can lead to a serious awareness of this issue, well, that would be great. As to transplants: in a perfect world, there won't be many more of his age in the same position, but it may be a reality that will require consideration and compassion. Whatever their mistakes, his family should have ours now.

Alcoholic Gary Reinbach dead at 22 after transplant refused [TimesUK]
My Alcoholic Boy, Facing Death At 22 [Times UK]
So How Did This Bright-Eyed Little Boy Come To Die Of Drink At 22? Read His Mother's Story And Decide [Daily Mail]
Drinking In The UK [JFR]

* The doctor who tried to save the life of Neda Agha Soltan claims to have identified her killer. • Audio tapes of Silvio Berlusconi talking to escort Patrizia D'Addario have hit the Internet. In one conversation, Berlusconi tells D'Addario to wait for him in "Putin's bed." • A new book claims the Bush twins tried to lose their Secret Service detail whenever possible, and that Secret Service agents had to take a drunk Henry Hager (now Jenna's husband) to the hospital in 2005. • A witness in evangelist Tony Alamo's sex-crimes trial may have set the prosecution back by misidentifying Alamo and contradicting her own sister, allegedly one of his victims. • Researchers have found that birth control pills are less effective in obese women not because the hormones concentrate in fat tissue, but because they take longer to reach the necessary levels in the blood. • A doctor who has advised UNICEF and the World Health Organization says breast-feeding doesn't actually protect babies from disease, but that women who breast-feed tend to have healthier lifestyles. • Young British men are more likely to commit violent acts if they live with their parents, perhaps because they "have fewer responsibilities and more disposable income to spend on alcohol." • But drinking can be good for you — if it makes you pass out in a yoga position. • A House spending bill passed Thursday allows the use of local funds to pay for abortions in DC. • And Randall Terry of Operation Rescue, totally failing to learn anything from George Tiller's death, says that if the new health-care reform bill includes coverage for abortion, "history will hold those in power responsible for the violent convulsions that follow." •

Sarah Haskins in Target Women: Charm School [Current]

Earlier: All Sarah Haskins Posts
Condoms, Cleaning Supplies & Crap: A Q&A With Sarah Haskins

You know the people I'm talking about, right? The Wine People. The Beer Patrol. The dude who moved off campus junior year and suddenly became an expert in hops but is still about three years away from being an expert in not coming across as a douchebag. Those people. On the other hand, it's never fun to be sitting next to Drunky McDrool who reeks of Natty Light (what up Boston) and says his only specifications for a beer are "A. It gets me drunk, and B. It gets me drunk fast and cheap." Unless he's a really hilarious drunk, and then it's good times for all.

In any case, the Beer People and the Drunky McDrools of the world always seem to represent the two extremes when it comes to those who enjoy, as Jemaine would say, "a nice delicious glass of beer." But what about the ladies, ladies? There are always bullshit articles about "what your drink of choice says about you," and so on, and the marketing of beer towards women seems to be aimed more at light, "sexy" beers that will get you drunk without giving you a gut. In Britain, women seem to be turning away from beer, due to fears of weight gain and the idea that beer is a "manly" drink. Project Eve, a multimillion dollar ad campaign, aims to change the way women view beer....by introducing the concept of "female-friendly" brews.

"We are encouraging women to have a choice," Kristy McCready, MD, tells the Times of London, "We want to listen to women about what they want, get behind what they want and then speak to the licensed trade. We hope to change the landscape of beer." McCready aims to draw women back to beer by introducing "female-friendly" blends using ingredients such as elderberry and elderflower in order to promote beer more as a healthy ale than something one would drink from a funnel. Awesome. Now not only do we have the Beer People and Drunky McDrool, but we have The Girlie Beer Brigade who will scold you for ordering a Yuengling when you should have ordered a female-friendly blend that will undoubtedly be named after a shoe or a purse or a pony. Or maybe they'll just call it "I Can't Believe It's Not Yogurt But It's Still A Female Friendly Source Of Nourishment!"

Like I said, I'm not a huge drinker, but the idea of branding beer as "female-friendly" is a bit gross: do we really need Girlie Beer to give women healthy attitudes about drinking and moderation? Can't women just drink beer because they want to drink beer? Do we have to throw in a ton of ridiculous "female-friendly" ingredients just to push a product? What say you commenters? Are "female-friendly" brews a good way to get women to open up to drinking beer, or is this just another unnecessary attempt to make a few bucks by slapping a "female-friendly" label on something many women happily drink anyway?

Why Don't Women Drink Beer? [Times Of London]

The mind-wandering study asked participants to read from Tolstoy's War and Peace and press a key every time they caught themselves thinking about something else. Participants who drank during the study got distracted twice as much as their sober counterparts, but didn't notice it any more often, which will come as no shock to anyone who has ever tried to, say, talk to a philosophy major at a keg party.

While all British minds are doing a bit more booze-induced wandering these days, women showed the biggest increase — 15% now binge once a week, compared to 7% in the mid-90s. Interestingly, the biggest jump in consumption came for women over 65, whose weekly average drinking nearly doubled. Researchers from Oxford Brookes University say women may be drinking more because of advertising, because they have more money, or because — at least in Northern Ireland — they no longer have to worry as much about getting blown up at the bar.

However, another reason may be changes to Britain's incredibly confusing standards for measuring alcohol. According to the Guardian, "Binge drinking is defined as consuming on at least one day a week more than twice the safe limit recommended by the government, which is three to four units of alcohol for a man and two to three units for a woman." The definition of a "unit" changed in 2006, to reflect stronger wine and beer, so now a 175 ml glass of wine is worth two units, while two 125 ml glasses are worth three. The math on this makes no sense even when you're sober. Perhaps if the British government wants to reduce drinking, rather than increasing alcohol taxes, they should make their alcohol guidelines easier to follow than War and Peace.

Alcohol Drinkers Not Only Zone Out — But Also Are Unaware That They Do [ScienceDaily]
Female binge drink rates 'double' [BBC News]
Binge drinking Britain: surge in women consuming harmful amounts of alcohol [Guardian]
More British women drinking to excess [Reuters]