Number One?
Every year on this day I ask the question: Is Thanksgiving Eve, indeed, the biggest drinking day of the year? I've long maintained it is, but I've never found conclusive, or even highly probative, proof, so I set out again last weekend to find some.
Alas, the conclusive evidence eluded me again, though many sites (like Ask.com) made the bald assertion that it is the biggest drinking night of the year.
But The Drink Nation came to my rescue with their analysis that corroborates my suspicion that Black Wednesday is, indeed, Drinking Day Number One.
They give four anecdotal reasons that Black Wednesday is first:
1. Nearly all Americans have Thanksgiving off.
2. No one wants to entertain the night before hosting a big Thanksgiving meal.
3. Everyone is home for the holidays and wants to see old friends.
4. Thanksgiving dinner is a perfect hangover cure.
I agree with all four, but I think there's a little more to it. It's not that most Americans have Thanksgiving off, but that Thanksgiving is such a "nothing" holiday. Let's face it: turkey and Detroit Lions. That's about it, with no religious observations required. It's gotta be the lazy man's favorite holiday (no comment on the women who slave away in the kitchen), with a ton of sitting around and sleeping, so it's no big deal if you feel like crud that day.
It also kicks off the holiday season, so everyone is in especially high spirits.
As am I.
I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend, from secular exuberance to spiritual peace.
Cult Beer
It's not really a Thanksgiving Eve drinking story, but a TDE reader sends along this story about Great Lakes Brewing Co.'s Christmas Ale. It's only available eight weeks out of the year, and Clevelanders line up for an hour to get the first pour every November (of course, what else is there to do in Cleveland?). Excerpt: "During last year's inaugural pouring, Great Lakes poured a pint of Christmas Ale every 7.7 seconds for 13.5 consecutive hours (it's about as fast as beer can be poured, we're told). Great Lakes servers filled 6,298 pints of the ale and 6,868 of its other beers."
