Evil Brews

Your occupation can often be guaranteed to skew your perception of people. We've been living on this estate for ten months now, and i've gotten to know a few of the natives.
Thing is, though, after i started work at the local off-license, i started to wonder about the physical (and mental) health of these otherwise lovely neighbours. Well, mostly lovely anyway.
Take Jim, for instance. Decent bloke who visits *every single night* for a bottle of Glen Rossie (cheap whisky), and speeds through the superstrength beer as though it were water.
Then there's the really worrying ones. The mother who walks with a limp, shouts at her daughter for asking for sweets when they have 'no money', then shamelessly buys 6 litres worth of 'Frosty Jack' cider (7.5% gutrott).
And let's not forget the superhumans - like the guy who takes home 8 cans of regular beer, 4 cans of superstrength and three litres of the aforementioned evil cider.
Anyway, my question is this : Has anyone else had a similar revelation regarding people and alcohol? And how much (not to mention how often) is too much? Bear in mind that i'm not suggesting all alcoholics are evil, just wondering about the circumstances and stories that led to their 'condition'.

And the fact that you are happy earning money at the off-licence contributing to their "condition" :P

Yeah, there is that :D, though if it weren't me it'd be someone else. Besides, it's local, part time and mainly evening shifts. Alchys aside, it's ideal. Moo!

yo spike, long time no see.

I've worked with the 'public'. We have a local celebrity along the same lines as the ones above. We call him the 'Ciderman'.

Ciderman! Ciderman!
Drinks whatever's in the cider can!
Pint of beer!
Turpentine!
Vodka straight,
And cat's urine.
Look Out!
Here comes the Ciderman!

(lyrics by the wonderful dn)

Anyway, he usually pisses on the tesco wall before going into the shop itself and buying a bottle of cider. He does this all day, you can set your watch by the empty / refill cycle of the ciderman.

Turpentine and urine don't rhyme.

AndrewB said:

Turpentine and urine don't rhyme.

Then you make it rhyme!

AndrewB said:

Turpentine and urine don't rhyme.

Yes they do.

I'd make a thoughtful, decent reply to this post, but it would only get me in trouble with the authorities.

106 weeks until I turn 21 :/

i work at a liquor/convenience store. it really is fucking amazing sometimes.

Case in point; a fella came in on my evening shift on Friday night, asked for 4 Tennants super, and promptly relieved himself over the shop floor.

Incidently, does anyone else see the irony in homeless people drinking a beer called Tennants?

That merits a heh post.

Heh.

Having never really had alcohol or hung out with drunks, I haven't really much to say on the matter. However, the people on IRC have a few comments:

<orion> alcohol is evil

<orion> alcohol is legal

<dn> damn this alcohol!
<dn> beer giveth, beer taketh away
<Eypo> and beer doeth otherth stuffeth tooth
<dn> like pissth onth and onth
<dn> it's like a speach impediment fair in here
<dn> if this was real we would of drowned in spit by now

I like alcohol better than other stuff.

Ugh, booze sucks. I hate the feeling it gives me.

I must drink beer. Beer is the mind-killer. Beer is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my beer. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. When the beer has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Tobester said:

I'd make a thoughtful, decent reply to this post, but it would only get me in trouble with the authorities.

106 weeks until I turn 21 :/

9 days here! :D

ravage said:

stuff

"Give me a woman who loves beer, and I shall conquer the world"

The beer is the alcohol! The alcohol is the beer!

Bleedin' 'eck, i had no idea there were so many Dune fans on these boards. And why does DN's sig msg seem so familiar? For some reason it reminds me of an Aliens comic, tho i think it's a Haiku

BBG said:

Ugh, booze sucks. I hate the feeling it gives me.

I don't. :D

I think that whole thing about alcohol being something that makes lonely old guys cry in public depends entirely on one's mood when one starts drinking. I've always had fun drinking. My body always warms throughout, I get all flushed and energetic, and I have lots of fun. I don't know what those old guys' problems are. Heh.

Ultraviolet said:

I think that whole thing about alcohol being something that makes lonely old guys cry in public depends entirely on one's mood when one starts drinking. I've always had fun drinking. My body always warms throughout, I get all flushed and energetic, and I have lots of fun. I don't know what those old guys' problems are. Heh.

Solitary drinking is usally the more destructive kind in my experience.

ravage said:

I must drink beer. Beer is the mind-killer. Beer is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my beer. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. When the beer has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Leto would be proud of you, Paul.

I guess after 12 cans *anyone* could believe they were heading through foldspace.