—Josey

I embarked on my first week-long bender because I got dumped. Even when you know it’s coming, when you’re young—or maybe, also, when you’re not—it sucks. Really bad. After pleading and crying and many empty threats, I called some friends, went to the Greyhound station, got hit-on by some dude on his way to a Job Corps forestry program, and tearfully rode the bus to Santa Cruz, where I wallowed in cheap vodka, puked up cheap vodka, and might have eaten a burrito at some point. I stumbled through five misty, hazy days of drunk before catching a ride home. Splitting headache and trembling hands aside, I felt much better than I had before I left. I felt cleansed.
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—Christian

There is some innate drive in people that motivates them to amass wide arrays of a particular items. A quick pass at collectors.org will reveal that if something exists, there are people who collect it. And alcohol ephemera is no exception.

We’ve already highlighted the temple of Spain’s most ardent Jack Daniel’s enthusiast. That is a perfect example of someone who’s love of a particular brand of booze goes beyond mere happy hour hobby and crosses over into fanaticism. Because it’s one thing to simply enjoy the gods’ nectar, and it’s entirely another to devote a fair amount of one’s time, resources and living space to the accumulation of product, containers, accouterment, apparatus, etc.
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—Dan

Having just been paid a visit by my new friend Earl, I thought I’d provide fellow Enthusiasts with some tips on how to best survive a hurricane.

First off, remember that a hurricane can leave you without power, communication, or transportation for days; so proper prior planning is necessary to prevent fear/boredom and keep you and yours safe and sound. These hurricanes, devastating as they can be, don’t often come out of nowhere and usually move plenty slow enough to ensure time to collect supplies and establish a communal location with fellow Enthusiasts to sit out the storm. In my experience, the local A.S.S. (Amagansett Seafood Store) club, hosted by a drunken Irishman, suffices quite adequately. Regardless of your shelter location, remember that you of course need to stock up on necessities: ice, pre-cooked food (jambalaya!), and most importantly, booze—and lots of it. Mixers aren’t a bad idea either, as you may want to keep your options for beverage concoctions open as the storm outside (and within) rages on.
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—Christian and Josey

Full disclosure: two of us here at Alcohol Enthusiast headquarters are married—to each other. Ok, ok—we get it. Stop making that fake gagging noise. Just hurry up and get drunker so you can be happy for us already.

When two Enthusiasts meet, blackout and forget that they met, then meet again and attribute their deja vu-esque recollection of one another to some sort of important past life connection, get wasted, fall in love, and decide at some point to make this most unholy and booze-soaked of unions legit—there are certain rules that must be followed in the planning of the wedding. Just as a Catholic wedding requires readings from both Testaments and a Psalm song, and Jewish grooms break glasses—a wedding between two (or more) Enthusiasts must also follow certain tenets of faith.
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