....Jager, sobriety is over rated
In my business, it is also an over-reported and dubious claim.
In my first ad agency job, 1975, I fell easily into the three martini lunch regimen of a couple of my elder mentors. But there was this staid and proper guy,... his name was Martin,.... who was a teetotaler, and often joshed amiably with us about our affinity for alcohol as we headed out for lunch. He always stayed behind.
Well,... one day Martin was sick and couldn't come in. But he was working on a project which needed to be advanced that very day. Like myself, he was a writer. We had to have whatever he had accomplished up to that point, and my V.P. authorized me to check out Martin's desk to see if I could locate his copy drafts. Okay.
I found the drafts, alright,... but a middle left-hand drawer also revealed about thirty-five empty Nyquil bottles. That drawer was the
Lost Ark of hypocrisy. My faith in humanity was restored. Nothing was ever said about it, but Martin ended up writing in-house BS for Blue Cross-Blue Shield.
We may laugh so that we don't cry,... but we drink to maintain a semblance of composure and not be limited to those choices when something tough needs to get done.
