The idea of going out for a drink has never appealed to me.
I guess I don’t see what all the fuss is about.
But I think the root of it is that I simply never liked the atmosphere of a bar.
Too loud. Too smoky. People looking for a fight.
I’d rather be home with a book or watching TV.
The danger, as C.S. Lewis wrote, is in using alcohol as a crutch, rather than an occasion to be happy.
Understand: Alcohol gets people to church though.
Who drinks here? Office workers, jackets off, tie still on—or the reverse: jacket on, tie off. Restaurant help, nipping out for a drink, coming off a shift, fortifying themselves for the shift to come. Beaten down by life. Not broken, mind you, not beaten down like a coal miner or an out-of-work steel worker—just … dissatisfied with the way things have turned out. Not quite ready to go home just yet. Picture just a little too clear to get on the train at this precise moment. Better, it has been decided, to fuzz things a little around the edges before moving back into their other lives.
-Anthony Bourdain, Medium Raw