Drunkenfreude

Last year Susan Cheever entered the ranks of prohibitionism with her entry in the NY Times DRUNKENFREUDE. Her glib mangling of the classic German term 'schadenfreude' meaning taking joy in the misery of others opened with a 10 year-old tale of a woman's heavy drinking at a Christmas party then shifted into an observation that New Yorkers no longer got drunk at festive gatherings.

While heavy drinking was sometimes a sign of alcoholism, it was often an indication of heavy drinking leading to more heavy drinking in a time where nothing really matters.

Not your job, your life, and certainly not what any writer in a newspaper or blog have to opine about the issue of inebriation.

Several years ago at the retail basement of the Plaza Hotel I was running a jewelry store for Richie Boy. The place was a disaster. The Israeli managers played one CD of Modern Lounge Music.

From opening to closing like this space felt like a training ground for Shin Bet interrogators.

One night the two Turkish-Austrian managers of the exquisite patisserie Viennese Demels, and I were drinking Tyrolian wine in the store. My friend Richie Boy scolded my drinking, but only because he wanted something left for the other guests.

When they didn't show to our little gathering, we finished of the rest of the wine without giving any to Richie Boy.

My longtime friend was a complete buzzkill.

After quaffing the last glass I went to dinner upstairs at the Oak Room at the Plaza. I got home at 10:30 and fell into bed with GHOST TOTEM, a novel about Chinese dissidents trapped in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution. The book lasted about two pages before falling onto my face, but I awoke refreshed by a good nine hours sleep.

So am I an alcoholic or just a drinker?

I claim to be the latter, while recognizing the approach of the former at times.

At least my drinking hadn't interfered with my job as a diamantaire, mostly because there had been no sales that holiday season.

None.

So what me worry whether Susan Cheever doesn't think it's attractive to get drunk.

She's probably only attractive when I'm drunk.

I checked Google to make sure.

She was at least five drinks from being attractive, but then she was smart and intelligence always lasted longer than beauty and I guess that I shouldn't be so hard on her being a non-drinker, but let's face it the real reason she hasn't seen anyone drunk was that no one drinking liked a preacher.

So happy Beermas to all my friends.Let everyone else drink tea.

ps the beer in Fenway's stroller is empty.

To read DRUNKENFREUDE by Susan Cheever, please go to this URL

http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/drunkenfreude/

She is stone cold sober.