Sara' perche' sono astemio ma continuo a stupirmi della quantita' di alcool che questi irlandesi riescono a bere in una serata.

Sto leggendo un buon vecchio libro di G. K. Chesterton, una raccolta di riflessioni su vari argomenti di attualita'. Uno dei brani migliori riguarda proprio il bere che, nel bene e nel male, di distingue dalle bestie.

All the human things are more dangerous than anything that affects the beasts - sex, poetry, property, religion. The real case against drunkness is not that it calls up the beast, but that it calls up the Devil.
It does not call up the beast, and if it did it would not matter much, as a rule; the beast is a harmless and rather amiable creature, as anybody can see by watching cattle.
There is nothing bestial in intoxication; and certainly there is nothing bestial about intoxication or particurlarly lively about beasts. Man is always something worse or something better than an animal; and a mere argument from animal perfection never touches him at all. Thus, in sex no animal is either chivalrous or obscene. And thus no animal ever invented anything so bad as drunkness - or so good as drink.