> I seem to be one of about .05% of the population who doesn't drink for this reason.

I am in that category too, though I can stomach screwdrivers well enough to get drunk off them, and have on occasion. Jello-shots aren't bad either. I do like the effects of alcohol, but it is so unpleasant to taste that I am no danger of ever being an alcoholic.

Straightedge heh? Man, take all the fun out of life.

he he...guess I qualify.

Except I'm definitely not a vegan. Nothin' better than a nice Texas 20oz steak.

Oh, and I don't drink coffee either . I'm really straight-edge

Except I'm definitely not a vegan. Nothin' better than a nice Texas 20oz steak.

Sure there is. A 40 oz steak, for instance.

God i could go on an infinite rant on straight edge, but i'll not bore you all and further throw this off topic. BUT i did find this farking hilarious:

http://www.nothingnice.com/old/03-13-02.shtml

.. and oh so true. Not making fun of you guys, trust me i know where you are coming from.

There was an old Evan Dorkin (of Milk and Cheese fame) strip that was very similar to the strip on the top of that page. I wish I could find it online.

im straight-edge, but only for the reason that my life choices happen to coincide with a set standard (if you will) that was introduced in the past. i never even knew there was a straight-edge until my senior year in high school, and by that point id been living as i do for all my life.

I don't really get why you'd specifically want to get drunk and avoid the taste (as with Jello shots, screwdrivers, mimosas, Long Island Iced Teas, etc.). If you like the way orange juice tates, drink orange juice. Personally, I've very seldom been drunk, and never anywhere near the point of incoherence. But I do find an occasional beer or scotch tasty, which is the reason I drink them, not because it's alcoholic.

I always remembered straightedge people from my highschool and stuff being the ones who wore black dickies and died their hair black, got tats of X's all over them, oh.... and wouldn't do any drugs.

On a side note, what I've always found to help is to drink slowly and have a glass of water in between drinks. You'll probably have to take a leak every few minutes (excuse the wording ladies) but it works out well. Your liver can process about 1 drink's worth of alcohol per hour, just FYI.

Oh yeah, don't use aspirin. That is harsh on the stomach, and will just make you even sicker. Use ibuprofen or another alternative.

1. Drink lots of water before going to bed.
2. Eat lots of bread or similar before going to bed
3. Sleep in

If you do those three things, you can avoid a hangover. I've gone from being an alcoholic to total abstinence back to drinking socially. I currently have a collection of about 60 different liquors. I can make any drink you could possibly want. A lot of drinks taste like crap, but if there are a number of mixtures which taste incredible. For example, if you can properly make a Buttery Nipple, Ameretto Sour, Whiskey Sour, etc. I'll post pictures if I can find the stuff to copy over the photos from my digital camera.

-Biscuits

Sure there is. A 40 oz steak, for instance.

touché

I currently have a collection of about 60 different liquors. I can make any drink you could possibly want.

Yeah, but do you have one of these?

I can make any drink you could possibly want.

Yeah, but is it automated?

Edit: JINX!

Copycat.

Well, I don't really understand the cartoon. I think I wasn't aware of whatever this X thing is, and I have no idea who Ian MacKaye is. The description below the strip definitely doesn't apply to me. I don't drink because I don't like how other people act when drunk.

As for covering the taste with orange juice or jello or whatever, besides me thinking that it's sort of missing the point of drinking in the first place, it wouldn't do any good. I'm serious when I say I cannot stand the taste of alchohol in anything. You know how they say "you can't taste the alchohol" in some dish? I can, and I don't like it. If it has the least amount of alchohol in it, I can't stand the taste. People I know don't believe me and have even tested me on several occasions. They'll hand me some sort of boxed chocolate, I'll taste it and say,"eww, there's alchohol in this, isn't there?"

Seriously, I have nothing against anyone who wants to drink. I just hate the taste more than any other taste I can think of.

ps-I should amend this above post. There is one single instance where I don't mind the taste of alchohol, and that is in Bananas Foster, the greatest dessert ever invented. Even then, it has to be a very specific, very sweet rum, and in that case the large amount of brown sugar does indeed cover the taste.

Ian MacKaye was the lead singer and lyricist of the band Minor Threat and was and is the lead singer/lyricist for Fugazi. He apparently coined the term straightedge and came up with the `X' on the hand symbol, which is a symbol of being a straightedge.

In other words, there's some dogma involved.

Edit: Here you go.

I've only heard the term "straightedge" once before (I know, I'm kind of out of things), and I suppose I really don't qualify anyway (as I do occasionally have a drink).

I didn't drink until I was 21, and still never drink to drunkenness. There are very few drinks I enjoy the taste of (though admittedly I haven't explored very much either). A glass of wine to complement a meal can be nice, and my wife finally go me to try a Smirnoff Ice, which I absolutely love now (I know it's a "ladies drink", but do I really care ?)

As far as the other vices mentioned, drugs are definitely out, I didn't have sex before I was married, and I eat as much red meat as my wife will allow (she tires of it more quickly than I. "Steak again? That's the fourth time this week!").

The main reason I don't do any of those things is because they are a complete waste of time, money, and are harmful, in more ways than one; basically, the obvious reasons. "Straight Edge" is just a loose label for the actions I choose to take, or not to take, as the case maybe. I don't follow anyone else's philosophy, and I actually agree with that comic, and the points he made. It became a scene that people wanted to get into, something to be a part of, and some made hypocrites out of themselves. So, when I say I'm "straight edge," I merely mean that I adhere to the policy of no poison (drugs/smoking/alcohol), or promiscuous sex for reasons that have nothing to do with the origins of the term.

The X thing is an invention of a bunch of people who need yet another group to belong to... they called themselves Straight Edge... which they gleaned from a Minor Threat song, penned by Ian Mackaye (who is now in Fugazi). The cartoon simply makes fun of the fact that most people who are all hardcore straight edge are under 21, and soon after they give up their idealism and become massive hypocrits.

I've been vehemently anti-drug/alchohol/whatever most of my life. Mostly for exactly the same reasons you listed. I hated the taste and moreso hated the way people acted... i never understood why people would want to escape reality so bad and i thought it was weak and escapist. It was and still is a big deal for me to never be dependent on some substance or thing to get me through the day. I too never heard of "Straight Edge" until i was a senior in high school... and found it interesting that my "beliefs" had some sort of movement/label behind it. I never got into it though... i hated when people would call me that.

Fast forward to now... i can't say when or where i changed exactly... but i'm now 24 and didn't have a drink until the day i turned 21, mostly because i could think of no other way to celebrate, and even then it was one drink. I guess a big part of it was realizing that not everyone who drinks is a drunken [censored]. Meeting responsible people who can have fun and not be retarded about it was key i guess. Up until two weeks ago i could also say i'd never been drunk, but i had too much wine at a friends dinner party (still trying to figure out how that happened) and my stomach was pissed. Still never been really drunk though... stupid out of control drunk, and never plan to be. I dunno... things change when you age, and i've found that saying i'll NEVER do this or that is a recipe for... well, hmm. i dunno. It just rarely rings true. Whatever that means. I still stick to my guns and have never done a drug a day in my life. (if someone tries to get in an argument about caffiene or something else being a drug, you will be summarily ignored).

Blah blah blah... etc etc....

(woops... faulk beat me to the Minor Threat thing)
Ian is still ruing the day he wrote that song by the way... he HATES the straight edge movement.

Oh my. That is something I must have!

Not because I am a drunk, but that is just too cool.

While everyone is stating their drinking habits, here's mine. I drink mostly beer. Rarely do I have more than 3 in a sitting. If I drink hard liquor, it is almost always in shot form and it ends the night. I have never been drunk nor had a hangover, but I have had 7 beers once in a single sitting which I think is way too much. I smoke socially (almost never buy my own cigarettes), and I don't do any drugs. I am no kind of vegitarian, but I usually only eat red meat when I'm at a steakhouse or a place that is known for good steak. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

So, it looks like we pretty much agree. The stupidity that goes along with drinking, smoking, and doing drugs is just amazing. Being plastered and irresponsible just isn't my idea of fun. I have no problem with people who are responsible enough to know their limits and have just a few drinks with dinner, etc. It just so happens that I choose to not drink at all.

I would think with all of the obvious consequences to doing drugs, and smoking, that people would be intelligent enough to realize they are slowly killing themselves, and having an effect on the people they love. Sad part is, most don’t realize it until it’s too late.

My family has had a number of deaths that were alcohol and nicotine related, and THAT, I think, is my main reason for being so set in my ways. After loosing so many loved ones, and knowing exactly what caused their death, it would be incredibly naïve of me to ignore the facts.

Now, getting my sister to stop smoking… that’s another story.

Now, getting my sister to stop smoking… that’s another story

if you figure out a way... lemme know... i'll use it on my brother! =]

I offered to buy him a plane ticket from Louisiana to stay with me for a week in SF if he'd quit. . . no dice. Silly bastard.

I offered to buy him a plane ticket from Louisiana to stay with me for a week in SF if he'd quit

Ah, see, you were making the assumption that he wanted to stay with you.

Now, a plane ticket to Hawaii, he might think about that one.

PSH... you don't know my little brother. He LOVES it out here. If he could afford it he'd be here already. =D You're talking the difference between $250 and a grand. =]

iirc, the x started as a way of marking minors at bars. it then transformed from that to the sXe symbol it now is almost synonymous with.

Yup. I think you are correct. That's what i've always heard anyhow... who knows. But it makes sense.

The best is people with insane sXe tattoos who are now drunken bastards. lol. i've met a few.

> I don't really get why you'd specifically want to get drunk and avoid the taste

Um, because it is fun.

> The stupidity that goes along with drinking, smoking, and doing drugs is just amazing.

People who do it to extremes are stupid, yes. But being drunk is an enjoyable experience, as is other forms of *cough* entertainment, as long as you don't do it to the extent of ruining your life and being dependant on it. For those with family histories of substance abuse problems, perhaps straightedge is a good solution. For most people having a drink or spliff is not going to do any harm.

The family members that passed away due to alcohol, especially my grandparents, would never drink to the point where they got drunk. My grandfather in particular would just have a drink every night while watching the news, hardly what I would call "abuse," never the less, it killed him.

My point being, yes, it is going to do harm over time. Same with nicotine, but people love to ignore the obviously bad consequences, especially if they can continue doing something they enjoy. "It'll never happen to me..." <shaking head>

> My grandfather in particular would just have a drink every night

There have been several studies that show that one drink a day, especially of beer or wine, is actually good for you.

Edit: Let me add two links relating to moderate drinking being good for your risk of strokes and heart attacks.

I'd never even heard the term until now. I don't drink at all, never have, and like you can't stand alcohol in anything, except maybe one or two of those chocolatey things with rum in. Even then it's a bit like a sour skittle, painful and making you wonder whether it's a good idea. I can always taste it, and it's like drinking battery acid (yes, I know what battery acid tastes like, long story, don't ask).

People keep telling me, "It's always like that at first, but you get used to it". My response is, why would I want to? I'm sure you could get used to being kneed in the nads, but I wouldn't want to do that either

I don't use any drugs, drink tea, coffee, or even like coke, which makes me an awkward sod to deal with at social events. I will drink coke, in small amounts, if there's nothing else available, but caffeine both screws with my bladder and gives me a raging headache. I used to use a bit of Red Bull to stay awake while working 20-hour days on the empeg PCBs, but don't like the taste and rarely ever drink it nowadays. (perhaps five cans in the last two years)

One of the less obvious perks of being a chemical virgin is that opiate-based painkillers such as codeine have an absolutely phenomenal effect on me. When I had an operation a couple of years ago that caused intermittent severe pain during the recuperation, I found that half the recommended dose of codeine phosphate worked for more than twice the usual time on me, with none of the normal side effects (massive constipation, for instance). It's been useful a few times since.

That said, I have no particular problem with anyone else doing any drug they wish, as long as they both fully understand the risks and don't have an adverse effect on others. It's their life, after all, and it's not my place to dictate how they live it. I don't understand why someone would want to chemically alter their outlook in such a way, especially with the common side-effects, but most people seem to enjoy it at the time.

Funny story. I went to a party a while back and got into a conversation with a couple of people I met there, on the subject of legalisation of narcotics. I and a young woman who was a lawyer in training had a long and involved argument about drugs, but from viewpoints that the onlookers found odd. I don't use any drugs at all, but tend to think that careful legalisation or at least decriminalisation of many of the less lethal ones would have a beneficial effect. The young lawyerette was both drinking and smoking, and freely admitted to using at least two less legal narcotics in the form of pot and cocaine, but was vehemently opposed to any legalisation of either, and in fact was quite keen on the banning of both alcohol and tobacco. Her reasons were that people like herself didn't have the willpower to avoid drugs, and legally restricting them was in her best interests.

She didn't seem to realise the irony inherent in the fact that even though weed and coke are already illegal she still didn't seem to have any problem getting them, but then she was both pissed and a little stoned

pca