James Bond is an absolute lush
I'm reading Moonraker (1956, Ian Fleming). It's the best book I've ever read. I'm halfway through the book and about 24 story hours have elapsed. In this time, all Bond has done is go to the office, then go to a card game, all the while getting horrendously drunk, and high on speed. I also have lost count of the number of fags he has smoked.
A Day in the Life of James Bond
Lunch (so I didn't count this) - half a carafe of White Bordeaux
Gets briefed, goes home.
Checks himself out naked in the mirror.
In the evening at Blades, the most exclusive card club in London:
Vodka Martini (Dry)
Bond explains to M that he has to get hammered to pull off tonight's card sharping hustle.
M eats a marrow bone using a silver spoon.
1 whole bottle of Dom Perignon '46, most of which he downs by the glass, and about half a gram of Benzedrine (speed).
He took our a thin packet and carefully opened it under the level of the table. It contained white powder. He took a silver fruit knife off the table and dipped the tip of the blade into the packet so that about half its contents were transferred to the knife. He reached for his glass of champagne and tipped the powder into it.
"Benzedrine," he said. "I rang up my secretary before dinner and asked her to wangle some ... It's what I shall need if I'm going to keep my wits about me tonight. It's apt to make one a bit overconfident, but that'll be a help too." He stirred the champagne with a scrap of toast so that the white powder whirled among the bubbles ... "It doesn't taste," said Bond, "and the champagne is quite excellent."
3 fingers of Vodka, with a dash of black pepper in it.
1 cup of very black, very strong coffee
"a fat measure of pale brandy" (Rothschild Eastates in Cognac)
Another entire bottle of Dom Perginon '46 (he again downs 2 of the glasses from it)
I went to the Drinkaware site (which reminds me - I dislike the current-ish "You wouldn't start a night like this" radio and TV campaign by the way - daft strategy, I will explain later) to check Bond's units consumed whilst on HMSS.
It's 24.2 units in about 5 hours, from 8pm until around 1am. The equivalent of maybe 10-12 pints while he's playing cards and having dinner. It's not just an excuse to talk about fine brands, and getting smashed plays an integral and exciting part of the plot of these books, which doesn't come out in the movies at all. Excellent.
You wouldn't start a night like this....
On why I dislike those anti drinking ads. I think the proposition/idea is good, and the executions are great too. Really viceral, clever twist on things, etc.
I have no doubt that when you show these ads to people in a focus group, they will all respond and say something like "That has really put me off drinking, made me think twice." However I also have no doubt that these same people will still go out drinking. They will then get -almost- too drunk, then someone will say, have a shot of this, at which point they will probably not be thinking of this ad. Then they will be trolleyed and we are back to square one.
This is for 2 reasons:
1. The strategy is a pure moderation one, and it doesn't give people a solution, or an alternative behaviour to use
2. It doesn't address the moment at which the problem occurs
Have you ever toilet trained a dog, or trained any kind of animal? Then you will know that if you want it to stop doing something (chewing shoes), the easiest and best thing to do is provide an alternative behaviour, that you reward (chew rubber bone instead of shoes). The key thing about the alternative behaviour is that it's realistic, fun, and that it makes it impossible to do the un-desirable behaviour at the same time.
If you have ever tried to control, chastise, or reason with a very drunk person, you will also know that telling very drunk people or animals about what they can or can't do after or before the event is near-useless. Drunk people have little sense of past reasoning or future consequences. You must catch the bad behaviour at the moment they do it.
So, IMHO, a good strategy would be to provide moderately drunk people with an alternative behaviour that prevents them having "the excess drink" which sends them over the edge.
I don't know what this behaviour could be, but the key thing is that it can't be just "don't have a drink." Something about pulling could maybe work.
Another thing to do would be some actual research into how people get too drunk. My pointers for more general topics would be:
* Get people to go out later, or go home first then meet up later to go out, rather than straight to the pub from work.
* I suspect research would show there are key people within social groups who catalyse excessive drinking. (This includes most of you who are reading this). Perhaps something making it socially unacceptable to nudge your mates into drinking more than they can handle. If you make your mate drink, you could KILL him/cause her to get RAPED.
Poor ideas, but you get what I mean?
A Day in the Life of James Bond
Lunch (so I didn't count this) - half a carafe of White Bordeaux
Gets briefed, goes home.
Checks himself out naked in the mirror.
In the evening at Blades, the most exclusive card club in London:
Vodka Martini (Dry)
Bond explains to M that he has to get hammered to pull off tonight's card sharping hustle.
M eats a marrow bone using a silver spoon.
1 whole bottle of Dom Perignon '46, most of which he downs by the glass, and about half a gram of Benzedrine (speed).
He took our a thin packet and carefully opened it under the level of the table. It contained white powder. He took a silver fruit knife off the table and dipped the tip of the blade into the packet so that about half its contents were transferred to the knife. He reached for his glass of champagne and tipped the powder into it.
"Benzedrine," he said. "I rang up my secretary before dinner and asked her to wangle some ... It's what I shall need if I'm going to keep my wits about me tonight. It's apt to make one a bit overconfident, but that'll be a help too." He stirred the champagne with a scrap of toast so that the white powder whirled among the bubbles ... "It doesn't taste," said Bond, "and the champagne is quite excellent."
3 fingers of Vodka, with a dash of black pepper in it.
1 cup of very black, very strong coffee
"a fat measure of pale brandy" (Rothschild Eastates in Cognac)
Another entire bottle of Dom Perginon '46 (he again downs 2 of the glasses from it)
I went to the Drinkaware site (which reminds me - I dislike the current-ish "You wouldn't start a night like this" radio and TV campaign by the way - daft strategy, I will explain later) to check Bond's units consumed whilst on HMSS.
It's 24.2 units in about 5 hours, from 8pm until around 1am. The equivalent of maybe 10-12 pints while he's playing cards and having dinner. It's not just an excuse to talk about fine brands, and getting smashed plays an integral and exciting part of the plot of these books, which doesn't come out in the movies at all. Excellent.
You wouldn't start a night like this....
On why I dislike those anti drinking ads. I think the proposition/idea is good, and the executions are great too. Really viceral, clever twist on things, etc.
I have no doubt that when you show these ads to people in a focus group, they will all respond and say something like "That has really put me off drinking, made me think twice." However I also have no doubt that these same people will still go out drinking. They will then get -almost- too drunk, then someone will say, have a shot of this, at which point they will probably not be thinking of this ad. Then they will be trolleyed and we are back to square one.
This is for 2 reasons:
1. The strategy is a pure moderation one, and it doesn't give people a solution, or an alternative behaviour to use
2. It doesn't address the moment at which the problem occurs
Have you ever toilet trained a dog, or trained any kind of animal? Then you will know that if you want it to stop doing something (chewing shoes), the easiest and best thing to do is provide an alternative behaviour, that you reward (chew rubber bone instead of shoes). The key thing about the alternative behaviour is that it's realistic, fun, and that it makes it impossible to do the un-desirable behaviour at the same time.
If you have ever tried to control, chastise, or reason with a very drunk person, you will also know that telling very drunk people or animals about what they can or can't do after or before the event is near-useless. Drunk people have little sense of past reasoning or future consequences. You must catch the bad behaviour at the moment they do it.
So, IMHO, a good strategy would be to provide moderately drunk people with an alternative behaviour that prevents them having "the excess drink" which sends them over the edge.
I don't know what this behaviour could be, but the key thing is that it can't be just "don't have a drink." Something about pulling could maybe work.
Another thing to do would be some actual research into how people get too drunk. My pointers for more general topics would be:
* Get people to go out later, or go home first then meet up later to go out, rather than straight to the pub from work.
* I suspect research would show there are key people within social groups who catalyse excessive drinking. (This includes most of you who are reading this). Perhaps something making it socially unacceptable to nudge your mates into drinking more than they can handle. If you make your mate drink, you could KILL him/cause her to get RAPED.
Poor ideas, but you get what I mean?
Labels: alcohol, booze, drink, know your limits, moderation
