Me, I always drank IPA. The hoppier the better. You with me? I have friends, they liked the pilsner type, you know, and that's fine. I always wanted to taste my beer though, and I was also probably hungry as hell without knowing it. Eventually, I started to drink Whiskey. It happened around the time I lost my first job. I don't attribute the loss of the job to drinking, not exactly, but I do attribute the whiskey consumption to the loss of the job. Something about whiskey was classy for me, an unemployed sort. I found a store out in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that's no longer there. The place was called "Likkur" or similar, but they intentionally misspelled it, and they knew their whiskey. For forty dollars, I got a bottle, a story about the bottle, and filled up my flask so that I could bring booze to bars when I met with friends--and, you guessed it--not buy alcohol at the bar. Or, I'd buy one drink and nurse it, all the while drinking the whiskey. Other's enjoyed it too. No joke, that whiskey.
I had a room-mate then, actually two. This one, he was most definitely an alcoholic, but he didn't drink anymore. Not until I brought the whiskey home. He asked me for a small taste of it one night when I came home, and, being drunk already, I obliged. Together we finished the bottle. It was only the first bottle of many.
Anyway, I thought that upper shelf whiskey from an eccentric liquor store certainly contributed to my status. And I'm betting that when a lot of people drink, they think it contributes to their status too--or that, they spend money in accordance with their perceived status. And yet. Lots of drinks at bars are watered down, or inauthentic (cheap liquors fill expensive bottles), etc.
Anyway, I'm sure that the whiskey that fall contributed to my sense of self. I'm not so sure, though, that it was a positive contribution.
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