Why I Drink More Alcohol Than You

Well this is fun. England's Department of Health ranked the biggest drinkers by industry. Where do you and your colleagues fall? I can't say for sure, but it's definitely below my colleagues and me:


Journalists finish first in the survey, followed by IT workers, service-sector workers and finance/insurance/real estate folks, who certainly seem like the group most likely to need their spirits lifted by spirits. But nobody can touch British journalists. Literally, touch them and they will punch you in a drunken haze. England's scribes consume more wine than any other industry, more liquor and more shots -- in all, enough alcohol to fill 19 pints in a week. We're the Animal House of the United Kingdom. Why?

Peer pressure, for one. Almost a third of respondents said they felt pressured by their colleagues to drink. The study found perverse office pressure "particularly in industries where entertaining clients or colleagues involved drinking." (Um, does that sound like IT to you?)

Either way, it seems Nelson was right, after all. Our medium is dying. And it's not just our ads. It's our livers.