[Harp-L] Alcohol a dangerous drug

["J.JONES" <jjones@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
      To the guy who disagreed with my assertion that drinking is an illness, it might be good to keep in mind a famous
quote from Charles Lamb, the English essayist, entitled "The Joys of Alcohol":

    To be an object of compassion to friends, of derision to foes; to be suspected by stangers, 
stared at by fools; to be esteemed dull when you cannot be witty, to be applauded for witty when 
you know you have been dull; to be called upon
for the extemporaneous exercise of that faculty
which no premeditation can give; to be spurred 
on to efforts which end in contempt; to be set on
to provoke mirth which procures the procurer hatred; to give pleasure and be paid with squinting malice; to swallow draughts of life-destroying
wine which are to be distilled into airy breath to tickle vain auditors (listeners); to mortgage miserable morrows for nights of madness; to waste whole seas of time upon those who pay it back in little inconsiderable drops of grudging applause---are the wages of buffoonery and death. 

    If regular use of alcohol is not an all or nothing
pastime, then please supply a reason that alcohol 
use is a positive activity---it loosens players up a bit, but really has no place among adults who are trying to create serious music.  I need not mention
all the social misery this dangerous drug causes---
perhaps more than any other substance.

Best,

Jeff Jones