Leland,

Recently enjoyed a 6 hour AAA driver safety class... and I actually did 
enjoy it. They showed a graph that related levels of sobriety in respect 
of content of alcohol consummed. It was fairly interesting to me the 
length of time from last drink till one is no longer progressive in loss 
of sobriety. It was a longer percentage of the experience time than I 
ever thought it was. So about the time that we think to give away the 
keys we are already headed much further into non-sobriety even if we 
stop drinking.

As to butter, or any food, the alcohol is not miraculously absorbed by 
the food and the idea that our innards are slowed down by a lump of 
grease (why not try creme d' menthe w/ Vasilene as an experiment? or 
consume peach-brandy butter whipped up in the food processor?) seems 
like fun, but I am not sure of the bio-chemistry here. The butter won't 
act to attract or block the alcohol molecules. As to having a full 
stomach, as in eating a meal, the food would absorb a portion of the 
liquids including the acohol, but the sum total of the alcohol entered 
into the body would not decrease and would enter into the bloodstream 
eventually, or be filtered through vital organs if their is too much of 
an excess.

In the reverse, though, I do believe that if one combines a high sugar 
content with the alcohol that it accelerates the intake into the 
bloodstream. I used to make a tarragon liquer with 180 proof vodka with 
it in mind that with the flow of sugar-alcohol that the various toxins 
of the tarragon would be carried along more quickly into the 
bloodstream. Think wormwood & absinthe (and I suspect that I did have 
absinthe one time). I may still have the bottle of greenish sweet 
tarragon brew around here somewhere if you want it as the sugars, if not 
the alcohol, will kill me. This sugar-alcohol combination is why many 
patent medicines contained alcohol, let alone that folks wanted to 
consume the alcohol it was a delivery mechanism for the herbal drugs. My 
curiousity was to make a THC laden liquer, but I never went that far 
with it. The most exotic I ever got with that was the bee pollen.

I have had for years now a 5-gallon jug of dandelion wine in the 
basement. I enjoy making non-grape wines and this was an especially good 
batch. I used a Champaigne yeast and as a result the percentage of 
alcohol was kicked up pretty good over a normal table wine. I like to 
see how far I can go to push the little yeastys to produce alcohol and 
reduce sugar content of the wine. The alcohol is essentially yeast shit 
and as they shit the alcohol kills them off -- sort of like we are all 
doing with our CO2. Over the last year I began to wonder why I was 
keeping this brew... whenever I handed a friend a mason jar of it their 
first question was if I was giving them a jar of cat piss. Regardless, I 
decided to take my time to drink it, with or without friends. Every once 
in a while I get the hankering and go down in the basement and siphon 
out a jar of it. Well, that jar usually goes down a bit too smoothly and 
by the time I am through it my inhibitions have me babbling in the 
living room then writing really strange missives to BP in order to 
assure my self-designated failure as a sane person. Whereas your 
grandmother advised you to be a gentleman, my pool shark jesus loving 
grandfather told me (I paraphrase his wisdom) if you are going to make a 
drunken ass of yourself then do it at home where people cannot see you 
-- and these days I would add don't do it near your computer either.

My next future wine will be rose petal. It is taking a long time to 
collect the petals.

As to moderation and excess. There is the use of alcohol as a social 
activity to release inhibitions as you mention. I have certainly had 
many pleasureable and rewarding times with family and friends while we 
were all drinking. More extreme is the use of alcohol as self-medication 
for psychological reasons. Alcohol consumption is contra-indicated for 
depression. I feel that a lot of alcoholism has to do with a lack of 
self esteem, a difficulty in maintaining a sense of self worth or 
confidence. Everyone that I know that drinks too much too often has 
serious problems with a lack of self-confidence. It goes beyond that to 
physiologic effects.

][<en

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