Trollied Tuesday: Rejoice

Heavy drinkers outlive non-drinkers.

So there.

Perhaps that old jibe – you won't live longer, it'll just feel like longer – has some validity. I'm no expert (on medical matters, I mean, I think I can claim some expertise in drink-related topics) but surely a sense of general well-being, stimulation and all the other positive qualities associated with drink have some health benefits?

Perhaps Byron expresses it best:

Man, being reasonable, must get drunk;
The best of life is but intoxication:
Glory, the grape, love, gold, in these are sunk
The hopes of all men, and of every nation;
Without their sap, how branchless were the trunk
Of life's strange tree, so fruitful on occasion:
But to return,—Get very drunk; and when
You wake with headache, you shall see what then.

Ring for your valet—bid him quickly bring
Some hock and soda-water, then you'll know
A pleasure worthy Xerxes the great king;
For not the bless'd sherbet, sublimed with snow,
Nor the first sparkle of the desert-spring,
Nor Burgundy in all its sunset glow,
After long travel, ennui, love, or slaughter,
Vie with that draught of hock and soda-water.

(from Don Juan)

Oh, and the Duke of Hamilton is still with us.