At The Stroke of Midnight A Century (Plus Six — 106!) Years Ago Today…
🕛 In January of 1920 — as the 16th 🥂 🍾 🍸 ✨ became the 17th 🕳️ — the United States officially entered Prohibition, marking the start of the driest January in our (then—and still) young-ish nation’s history. Well…the driest in theory at least, given that the amount of alcohol consumption that took place in the weeks prior likely outdid that of any entire January before then, as Americans of all races, creeds, colors, cultures, genders, regions, and such rushed to enjoy what they knew was about to be taken away—“forever,” as was the (wildly unrealistic) prohibitive plan. Talk about extremes —- two diametrically opposed half-month polar realities — within the exact same month: One drenched and drunkardly (no doubt) “wet”; and the other — democratically-decided to be super “dry” without a drop (theoretically) of inebriating “juice”of any kind to drink — without risk of going to JAIL if caught doing so. One two-week window wrought with splashy overindulgence; and the other two indicative of the imposed upon abstinence to be endured by every American — into eternity.….
This weekend’s a fitting time to ponder this dichotomy —and examine a shorter term, modern, normalized extreme. The self-imposed, usually temporary abstinence practice called Dry January: that time when otherwise socially spontaneous people decide (or at least state the goal) to stop drinking for the entire 31 days collectively called “January” — a month synonymous with terms like “Fresh Start" and “New Beginnings” set the stage for a behavior-altering decision further egged on this year (2026) by a barrage of new “science backed data” (that conflicts with previously accepted science backed data, mind you) now flooding terrestrial and digital airwaves everywhere to declare that alcohol of any kind or amount is… (clutching the invisible string of pearls at my neckline)…
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