by Mark Silva
Sing along now:
"I like beer,
"It makes me a jolly good fellow...''
Four in ten of those surveyed prefer suds.
That's among the nearly two-thirds of Americans who say they are known to drink on occasion. On average, they've had 4.8 alcoholic drinks during the past week - (right, it was that eight-tenths that did it.)
The annual drinking survey served up by the Gallup Poll, -finally, a poll that makes no mention of any partisan divide, or any Republican or Democratic opinion whatsoever - has found that, among the 64 percent who say they drink some, 40 percent preferred beer, 34 percent wine, 21 percent liquor. (We assume the other 5 like gasoline.)
Now, drinkers have grown more refined through the years.
The recession has taken a certain toll, too.
On the eve of the Clinton administration - oops, we weren't going to talk about politics - beer was the runaway favorite of drinking Americans: 47 percent said so in 1992. Wine had only a 27 percent share of the drinking public's allegiance. But beer does not go well with arugula.
Most men still prefer beer, while half of women choose wine - but we're sorry, the Swamp does not recognize white Zinfandel as a bona fide drink of any category.
Beer is still biggest in the Midwest, a statistic which was borne out by our son's last visit to the Pierogi Festival in Whiting, Ind., and his pictures of the street crowd. You cannot wash down a 92-pound pierogi with a spritzer.
College graduates are more likely to name wine than beer.
We've got a couple of degrees under our own (38-inch) belt, however, and we're here to tell you that, despite an unquenchable taste for a good Cabernet or Barolo....
"This little refrain,
Will help me explain,
As a matter of fact, I like beer.''
Comments
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin Franklin
Posted by: Lou | June 29, 2009 3:56 PM
Heh, yeah I remember when the Wingnuts elected an idiot dry drunk President because they wanted to have a beer with him:
Heckuva Job, Repuglicans!
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGRYPYuFZLk
Posted by: PurpleFloyd | June 29, 2009 4:03 PM
It's good for what 'ales' you.
Posted by: Flo | June 29, 2009 4:23 PM
Wine is fine but liquor is quicker...
Posted by: lochnesssmonster | June 29, 2009 5:14 PM
Leave it to PurpleFloyd to make a partisan jab in commenting on an article with no partisan slant whatever.
Posted by: DaveB | June 29, 2009 9:00 PM
“You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.”
.
- Frank Zappa
Posted by: John W. | June 29, 2009 10:15 PM
Dorothy Parker:
"Candy is dandy,
But liquor is quicker."
Three things Prez can't do, at least in public:
Use or be quoted as having used any 4 letter word (does not apply to his bouncers, appointment secretaries, doormen or chiefs of staff).
Smoke.
Drink alcohol (except possibly when toasting Elizabeth II's 100th birthday).
So, that was iced tea in that glass, right?
Posted by: ornery | June 30, 2009 12:18 AM
Dorothy Parker:
"Candy is dandy,
But liquor is quicker."
Sorry, that was written by Ogden Nash, not Parker. He later appended the verse with "pot is not" in the late 1960s, being from a different school than the hippies & beatniks, I suppose.
Posted by: Douglas Fletcher | June 30, 2009 7:34 AM
Ornery, when you show me a glass of iced tea with a head, I'll believe that!
Looks like we're down to two things.
Posted by: DaveB | June 30, 2009 8:26 AM
Lou, famous misquote steadily getting famouser. Franklin said that about wine.
Posted by: comatus | June 30, 2009 9:20 AM
Actually, the Ben Franklin quote that leads off the comments is a paraphrase of what Franklin said about WINE in a satirical letter to a French associate. He never was documented as saying any such comment about beer.
Posted by: Alexander D. Mitchell IV | June 30, 2009 9:44 AM
Leave it to a leftard to soil a beer thread with politics.
The only coffee table book I have is Michael Jackson's World Guide to Beer. It's the only thing my ex-wife gave me that I treasure. LOL!
Posted by: Hucbald | June 30, 2009 9:44 AM
Hey, I stand by the quote for both wine and beer. Both are proof of divine providence in my book!
Posted by: Lou | June 30, 2009 10:34 AM
Billy Carrington:
God is great
beer is good
and people are crazy
Posted by: mrsizer | June 30, 2009 12:57 PM
That Michael Jackson could do it all!
Posted by: rastajenk | June 30, 2009 1:42 PM
It would be interesting to see a breakdown by age. As you get older you tend to urinate more frequently. Getting up in the middle of the night to use the facilities is a real pain. Spirits produce the same "buzz" with far less liquid.
Camping and hunting trips in sub freezing weather got me completely off beer. Climbing out of your arctic rated sleeping bag and going out of the tent in your skivvies is not one of life's pleasures.
Posted by: Roy Lofquist | June 30, 2009 10:08 PM
Beer,beer,beer,
Love that stuff,
Can't get enough,
Beer,beer,beer!
Posted by: lawler,gregory a. | July 1, 2009 10:44 AM
* * * * *
Posted by: lawler, gregory a. | July 1, 2009 10:44 AM
.
Oh yeah? What about this one:
.
Dough, Ray Me (Beer)
.
DOUGH... the stuff...that buys me beer...
RAY..... the guy that sells me beer...
ME...... the guy... who drinks the beer,
FAR..... the distance to my beer
SO...... I think I'll have a beer...
LA...... La la la la la … beer
TEA..... no thanks, I'm drinking beer...
That will bring us back to...(Looks into an empty glass)
DOH!
.
-Homer Simpson
Posted by: John W. | July 1, 2009 2:28 PM