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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Who is America's Drunkest City?
2006-09-01
The drunkest city distinction officially goes to Milwaukee according to a report by Forbes.com. Forbes states that Milwaukee is "America's Drunkest City" on a list of 35 major metropolitan areas ranked according to their drinking habits.
Forbes indicated on Tuesday that it used numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank cities in five areas: state laws, number of drinkers, number of heavy drinkers, number of binge drinkers and alcoholism, reports the AP.

Minneapolis-St. Paul was ranked second overall; followed by Columbus, Ohio; Boston; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Cleveland; Pittsburgh and then Philadelphia and Providence, R.I., in a tie for ninth.

Milwaukee officials contend that the city has come a long way in doing away with its beer-guzzling image.

Dave Fantle, a spokesman for the group, says Milwaukeeans have plenty of other things they can do to entertain themselves without drinking alcohol, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Fantle noted a new convention center and baseball park had been built and the Milwaukee Art Museum expanded in recent years.

"We've gone from Brew City to new city," Fantle claimed.

Forbes.com's Top Drinking Cities

1. Milwaukee
2. Minneapolis-St. Paul
3. Columbus, Ohio
4. Boston
5. Austin, Texas
6. Chicago
7. Cleveland
8 Pittsburgh
9. Philadelphia
9. Providence, R.I. (tied)
11. St. Louis
12. San Antonio
13. Seattle
14. Las Vegas
15. Denver/Boulder
16. Cincinnati
16. Kansas City (tied)
18. Houston
19. Portland, Ore.
20. San Francisco-Oakland
20. Washington-Baltimore (tied)
22. Phoenix
23. Los Angeles
24. New Orleans
24. Tampa (tied)
26. Norfolk
27. Dallas-Fort Worth
28. Atlanta
28. Detroit (tied)
30. Indianapolis
31. Orlando
32. New York
33. Miami
34. Charlotte, N.C.
35. Nashville
Posted by:mcsegeek1

#24  I don't read Microsoft instruction manuals, Zenster. I can feel the pressure building inside my cranium by page 4. And I'll bet any amount of money neither you nor I will win a grammar argument with .com, who's been programming things since shortly after the dinosaur killer hit, as far as I can tell.

twobyfour, non-native language speakers are either obvious, grammar-wise, or better at it than native speakers. Both of my parents fall into the latter category with you; my grandmother spoke English as if it were German (which made my life easier in both English and German classes.) On the other hand, Daddy's accent still sounds like he got off the boat from Latvia, the country he left over 70 years ago.;-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-09-01 23:38  

#23  Here's an opportunity for Amtrak. String together 10-16 tavern-lounge cars with an additional smoker on the old Milwaukee Road Chicago-Milwaukee-Minneapolis route (#1, #2, #6)as the "Happy Hour Hiawatha" and keep em' pouring. Amtrak loses money on food service, but this calls for (( simplifying)) the menu. Add a corkage fee for all liquor brought on board in paper bags. And on the weekends, bring back the Milwaukee-Madison "Varsity" on the weekends as the Badger Party Barge. Problem is, when this is tried in Europe (trains+alcohol), soccer games break out.
Posted by: Slaitle Uninenter7407   2006-09-01 23:38  

#22  Zenster, a programmer and a technical writter are different animals altogether. A good programmer doesn not need to have a manual written. ;-)
Posted by: twobyfour   2006-09-01 23:24  

#21  No, that does not mean I think all programmers are barely functionally literate

Boy howdy! Are you ever in for a surprise. Read a Microsoft instruction manual sometime.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-09-01 23:12  

#20  TW, well, I do many things, programming is one of them. Of course, well defined structure and internal logic are paramount, else the stuff does not work. ;-)

But, since one often has to translate real world idiosyncracies into programese, our professional deformation is not that severe. ;-)

In my case, English is my nth tongue, I had to make rules, when I started to learn it, to make some logical sense. Mind you, I still butcher it readily, especially when colloquial usage is concerned and sometimes tend to translate sayings from my mother tongue into English. Several of them caught up, though, as I had a friend that was a president of an actors and screenwriters guild. It was fun to watch a tv show and hear these utterances, to my delight, knowing I've contributed to the enhancement of my adopted lingo.

Back to the grammar. Yes, it is which. The reason is that a choice of the cities is presented with the question.

The rule I devised was:

· Which system are you going to run today (from your 5)?

· What speed is this CPU?
Posted by: twobyfour   2006-09-01 22:36  

#19  Check out downtown San Diego on a Friday night. Some don't make it back to Coronado.
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550   2006-09-01 22:23  

#18  And Alaska is a state, so obviously it's not in the running. Just as well, them 'laskans would skew the darned curve again!
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-09-01 20:50  

#17  Grammar fight! Grammar fight! We haven't had one of those in ages!! ;-)

What is America's Drunkest City The answer to that is obvious: drunk. Who is for people. I vote for which, with Grunter and mcsegeek1. MSWord was written by a bunch of programmers, and it isn't fair to expect the darlings to grasp the finer points of grammar. (No, that does not mean I think all programmers are barely functionally literate, but grammar is historical in many of its aspects rather than formally logical, which contradiction may lead to exploding programmer heads -- a situation preferably to be avoided.)
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-09-01 20:48  

#16  20. Washington-Baltimore (tied)
They don't call it a quaint little drinking town with a baseball problem for nuthin!

(And thank Kennedy for keeping the DC average up.)
Posted by: eLarson   2006-09-01 15:02  

#15  "Here's to alcohol. The cause of and solution to all mankind's problems."

— Homer Simpson —
Posted by: Zenster   2006-09-01 13:37  

#14  It's tough just to stay on the bar stool.

Reminds me of some lines from a song:

I was gonna get up off of that bar stool
Just as soon as I could figure it out.

...

Now do I really have to be responsible
For what I did between those tavern walls?

I was just mixing up some chemicals.
You coulda heard a pin drop, coulda heard time crawl.

"Paper Thin" by John Hiatt
Posted by: xbalanke   2006-09-01 13:18  

#13  I'm kind of surprised Alaska doesn't make the list anywhere. I'd have thought with 6 months of darkness there would be a lot of drinking going on. Maybe not the fun kind of drinking but still.

Another thing to remember about his kind of list is it often shows which are the most boring areas as well. Nothing to do but drink PBR in the basement and get drunk is hardly something to be proud of.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2006-09-01 13:14  

#12  I believe this is true. I spent a couple years in Milwaukee. Those people are serious. Standard round is double shot followed by beer chaser. And they don't water the booze. It's tough just to stay on the bar stool. I told them they ought to provide seat belts.
Posted by: SOP35/Rat   2006-09-01 12:13  

#11  Yeah. I like which. (Although MSWord doesn't)
Posted by: mcsegeek1   2006-09-01 12:02  

#10  Which. Which is America's drunkest city?
Posted by: Grunter   2006-09-01 12:00  

#9  heh
Posted by: Yankee fan   2006-09-01 11:54  

#8  4. Boston

Well, if you were a Red Sox fan, you'd stay drunk too.
Posted by: Steve   2006-09-01 11:50  

#7  Who, as in a collective of people. What, as in an object. Either can be used. It's debatable.
Posted by: mcsegeek1   2006-09-01 11:35  

#6  All the time I've been on Rantburg I've been a good little boy, but this is the last straw and my inner proofreader must come out: What. What is America's Drunkest City.

Okay. I feel better now.
Posted by: Jonathan   2006-09-01 11:30  

#5  "How about just using the number of DUI arrests per 10,000?"

That might tell you which city had the best DUI enforcement, but I doubt it'd tell you which city drank more.
Posted by: mcsegeek1   2006-09-01 11:26  

#4  rank cities in five areas: state laws, number of drinkers, number of heavy drinkers, number of binge drinkers and alcoholism, reports the AP.

How about just using the number of DUI arrests per 10,000?
Posted by: Ulumble Angeck2580   2006-09-01 11:02  

#3  Corollary between college [and wanabe] population and ranking?
Posted by: Thock Crirong5905   2006-09-01 11:00  

#2  Our bars are open 24/7/365 and we still barely make the top 25. And New Orleans calls itself a party town. Hah.
Posted by: Glenmore   2006-09-01 10:20  

#1  Yeah Austin! Biggest party college and 5th drunkest overall. :)
Posted by: Thoth   2006-09-01 09:54  

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