Another interesting historical comparison is that for much of the history of civilization, drinking water was mostly contaminated and unsafe to drink. So peopl

Another interesting historical comparison is that for much of the history of civilization, drinking water was mostly contaminated and unsafe to drink. So people drank beer and wine instead. Granted, most of the time it was watered wine or "small" beer, but yeah, most people must have been somewhat buzzed all the time. I read a book about John Wilkes, the 18th century English politician, and apparently it was not uncommon for people in those circles to drink four or five bottles of wine a day... Ben Franklin was another famous lush, as was Winston Churchill. There's a lot of bizarre puritanism going on in American culture these days...