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Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 12 comments on Four Festive Cocktails for Your Holidays

  1. Consider the amount of BU Police resources spent dealing with alcohol.

    Consider that alcohol is the “gateway drug” to drug abuse.

    Consider that alcohol results in more deaths than any other substance except tobacco.

    – – –

    Is it really a good idea to promote alcoholic drinks in a BU Today article?

    – – –

    According to the Centers for disease control “Drinking too much can harm your health. Excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) each year in the United States from 2006 – 2010, shortening the lives of those who died by an average of 30 years.1,2 Further, excessive drinking was responsible for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20-64 years. The economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption in 2010 were estimated at $249 billion, or $2.05 a drink”

    And yet BUY printed this article without even a reminder to drink responsibly.

    – – –

    I’m not suggesting prohibition here, but why promote alcohol use?

    What’s next, how to juggle hand grenades?

    1. Wow, exaggerate much? Showcasing 2 BU alumni and 4 cocktails is not promoting alcohol use or saying to go drink too much. The article isn’t under the “Campus Life” section. And do you seriously think that any underage undergrads are going to make these drinks with items such as bitters? No, they’re going to get the cheapest beer and vodka from plastic handles available so calm down. If you can’t read an article and look at 4 cocktail recipes without being told you should drink responsibly then you have a problem. The whole BU community receives the BU Today emails so thanks for the festive drink ideas, BU Today. People need to stop getting offended over every single thing.

      1. Maybe you will understand in a few years, after you have firsthand knowledge of a few more pointless deaths, unplanned pregnancies and destroyed marrriages.

        It is not the sophistication and taste of undergrad drinking that matters. I was at a sophisticated cocktail party (Oakland, Ca – live 12 piece Jazz band) and saw a banking professional and a co-worker having sex outside the back door while throwing up. I’m pretty sure there are BU undergrads that saw the same thing this year. The quality of the drink does not stop the effects of alcohol and the different ways people manage them.

        1. So because some people can’t handle their alcohol and aren’t responsible and other people become alcoholics and make poor choices no one should ever read about a different cocktail recipe? Absurd. Should I not drive a car because there are irresponsible drivers? Should I not read an article about Christmas cookies because some contain lard and our country is obese? Please. I have plenty of life experience and firsthand knowledge of things that can go wrong in life, thank you. This is a short, simple article showcasing some BU alumni and their talents. No need to get on a soapbox for a cause.

  2. I do not feel obliged to agree or disagree with Nathan; almost all of what he says is just stating facts. My daughter went to BU as a 16 year old freshman, and was teased in her first year in a PhD program because, as a 20 year old, “she was too young to drink”. And so, I’d like BU Today to take the discussion in a more interesting direction. Namely, report on what what type of alcohol-related conversations do parents in this country have with 12-14 year old “kids”? When do they start offering their kids alcohol at the dinner table in order to both watch their behavior and have a dialog going (before discussing BU police statistics)?

    1. Thank you.

      I shared wine and beer with my two kids at 12+ at the dinner table and at restaurants in Europe. I shared hard liquor with my kids around 15. At this point they don’t care much about alcohol and don’t like seeing high school friends throw up at parties. – so I think I did fairly well in preparing them to deal with social drinking.

      The wife and I also talk to them about the drunk next door who killed a pedestrian last year, and still drives drunk.

      I advocate balance.

      Maybe “hand grenades” sounded over the top, but the USA death toll from non-military explosions is probably about 200 per year and juggling hand grenades less – yet we have a gut reaction to the potential danger. I believe the gut reaction to 88,000 deaths per year should be shocking too.

  3. Discussing a drink recipe doesn’t promote the abuse of alcohol. Avoidance of issues and censorship of an idea does. Healthy conversation never hurt anyone.

  4. I look forward to creating these drinks over the holidays. Making specialty drinks in our home always connotes a special occasion. I understand parental concerns about sharing drink recipes on BU Today; however, BU Today is a news and information website with a far-reaching audience. I’m an alum in my mid-thirties who stays current with University happenings through this informative site. I have appreciated past articles that have made mention of off-campus restaurants (w/ excellent drink menus) and tastings/demonstrations by culinary experts such as Jacques Pepin. BU Today has even sparked my interest in registering for a class in the culinary arts: wine studies program.

    Even as the legal drinking age is set at 21 years, in the state of Massachusetts, an 18 year old may be employed as a bartender to directly handle (sell, mix, and serve) alcoholic beverages as stated by the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC). Given that most undergraduate students are around 18 years of age, it seems that honest and thought-provoking conversations about alcohol use and misuse would be an important part of campus life. BU has so many resources to offer its students, so I would like to think that there’s information and support available to enrolled students to address issues surrounding the use and misuse of alcohol. It would have been sensible if the article reminded students of legal age to drink responsibly and could have shared some of these resources as well.

  5. Thanks for sharing these Whisky cocktails.. Cocktail is easy to make at home that is like a twist in each drink to cheer up that’s why we should always prefer cocktails instead of drinking neat liquor .

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