From time to time, we will post short interviews with interesting people about their thoughts and feelings on women and drinking. There is such a wide array of perspectives about this topic, and we are excited to gain insight into as many as possible and to share them with you.

Caren Osten Gerszberg writes about education, travel and parenting for a variety of publications. Her regular column, “Mom U,” runs every other Tuesday on the New York Times blog, The Choice. Caren’s work has been published in the New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Town & Country, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic Traveler, Child, Parents, Cookie, Time Out NY, the International Herald Tribune and others.

Drinking Diaries: How old were you when you had your first drink and what was it?

Caren Osten Gerszberg: I’m not sure exactly when I had my first sip of whatever my parents were permissively happy to let me taste. But I do remember the first time I proudly approached the bar to ask for my very own whiskey sour. I was a 14-year-old guest and part-host at my father’s 50^th surprise birthday party. My parents, their friends and our relatives were so busy dancing and drinking–no one seemed to notice or care that me and my friend were regulars at the bar.

How did/does your family treat drinking?

As I’ve expressed in some of my previous posts, my European parents (French mother, Romanian father) were comfortable and easy-going about alcohol. It was a part of the culture, the meal, the celebration, the whatever. It was expected, and not abused…until much later.

If you have kids, how is the subject of drinking handled? Do you drink in front of them? With them?

We have two teenagers and are very clear about how we treat drinking. Like in my family of origin, we drink wine predominantly with meals and not much beyond. We allow our kids to taste our wine, and sometimes discuss the flavors we experience. We are not naïve about the exposure to drinking that our children have in their adolescent lives, so tell them the importance of making smart decisions and that we are always here to “rescue” them if they feel discomfort around others who are drinking.

What’s your drink of choice?

I truly enjoy the taste of wine and the enhancement it provides most foods–which I love even more. When I’m really thirsty, however, or after a day of skiing, I love the body and flavor of a cold amber beer.

Can you tell us about the best time you ever had drinking?

Drinking a bottle of Morgon out of a make-shift, top-sliced-off-water bottle cup in 1988, with my then boyfriend on the beach on Shelter Island…just before he proposed.

What about the worst time?

The worst times for me are connected with hangovers, and one in particular during college comes to mind. After playing a long night of “quarters” freshman year with two cute guys, I woke up with such a bad hangover that I remember struggling to walk up the four flights to a French class. The second my class was over, I stumbled back to my dorm room, back into bed, and called my dad to ask tell him how badly I was feeling.

What do you like most about drinking?

The edge rolling right off my neck and shoulders.

How has alcoholism affected your life?

My mother became an alcoholic in her 60s, and it was a wake up call on a myriad of levels. It provoked a reality check that has taken years to accept—and, for me, is the seed of this blog. It has made me question, think and rethink my attitude towards drinking and how important it is to consider a vulnerability I never dreamed I’d have.

If you could be any drink, what would it be? Why?

A kir royale. Because it’s sparkling and light, yet the cassis makes it feel rich and deep.

When I was pregnant–all three times–I drank the occasional glass of wine with my obstetrician’s blessing. I waited until the first trimester to indulge, and subsequently reveled in every last–albeit limited–sip.

It seems that many women, according to a recent article in the New York Post titled “I’m Drinking for Two,” continue to do the same despite the continual controversy. But what to do when you are faced with the almighty waiter, or bartender, who thinks they know best about you and your baby’s health?

I recently heard a story about a pregnant woman who was at restaurant and when she asked the waitress for a glass of wine, the waitress answered, “We don’t serve alcohol to pregnant people here.”

Needless to say, the customer was angry and wondered where this waitress got off telling her what she’s allowed, or in this case, not allowed to drink.

Why is that bartenders and waiters wield such great power in the world of consumption? I suppose it’s they’re the ones in control of all those bottles, glasses, soda fountain dispensers…and peanuts.

But when an obese diner orders an ice cream sundae for dessert, does the waiter suggest they go for the fresh fruit? I don’t think so.

I have a good idea how I’d respond to a waiter who thought it was okay to take those kinds of liberties.

But I’d be curious to hear what people think about that scenario—should pregnant women be able to order a glass of wine at a restaurant?

When I got to college, I was totally ready for the academics, more than a bit cowed by dorm life (as any introvert would be), but mostly–I was completely unprepared for the drinking life that dominated my Ivy League campus. I say Ivy League, because my university did not fit the stereotypical bill of a “party” school, yet it was. Oh yes, it was. Most schools are.

As I mentioned in an essay for Drinking Diaries, my dorm hosted a “rooms party,” that first week of college. We served gin and tonics, I passed out that night, and I’ve never been able to even smell a gin and tonic since. That, dear readers, was the start of my college drinking career, which included many near-comatose Saturdays and Sundays, times where I woke up with a guy whose name I wasn’t sure I knew, drinks in the shower before parties, pitchers of beer mid-week, while studying for finals, drinks, drinks, drinks!

I’d like to think it was just me, that maybe things have changed drastically now that the drinking age is no longer eighteen (as it was when I was a freshman). We even had a Campus Pub, where they served kamikaze shots in little plastic shot glasses. Has it all changed? Or are students just crafting better fake IDs? Perhaps I’m hopelessly out of touch.

Also–maybe I was just extra hard hit since my high school drinking career was practically nil. But does that mean I should encourage my kids to drink before college so they get a drinking education? Hmmm. That sounds dubious.

It would be great if they came to college armed with some information about alcohol, though. Would that help them moderate themselves through all those temptations? I’m not sure, but maybe.

While browsing an interesting site called College Drinking–Changing the Culture, I discovered that some colleges offer mandatory alcohol education courses, which incoming freshmen can take online. That’s a start, but it seems a bit impersonal.  It may have helped me more if college students had visited my high school during senior year for a frank and private (meaning no parents or teachers) round table on college drinking.

Readers: I’d love to hear your thoughts on college drinking. Should students get some practice by drinking in high school, or do you think that’s absurd, given that: A) underage drinking is illegal; B) the earlier kids start drinking, the more likely it is that drinking will be woven into the fabric of their lives; and C) drinking isn’t healthy for the developing body and brain.

Often, while indulging my magazine and online reading habits, I come across celebrities who pique my blogular interest (Yes, I think I made up the word blogular).

While we’ve featured many amazing women on this blog, here are some actresses I dream of interviewing on Drinking Diaries:

Helen Mirren:  As quoted in Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire: What do you most value in your friends? Their ability to open a bottle of wine.

Emma Thompson. As quoted in the Telegraph, UK: “Oh lord, I don’t know. I’ve got so much on at the moment and I’ve got to stay off the wine if I’m going to remain alive. Besides, wine really shouldn’t be taken that seriously, but just seriously enough.”

Thompson knows more about wine than she admits. In fact, I had heard that she was hoping to become a Master of Wine. This qualification is notoriously tough – only about a third of each year’s students gain the right to use the initials MW after their name. Indeed, there are just 278 successful graduates worldwide (one of whom we interviewed on Drinking Diaries, Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan).

“All I really want to be able to do is identify certain wines and be able to remember them as well as matching them with food,” she says.

Brooke Shields, whose mother was an alcoholic. Shields told LIFE magazine that her mother’s alcoholism “affects everything.” How? I’d love her to elaborate on that. 

I’d also love to interview Meg Ryan and Sandra Bullock, about how they prepared for their roles as alcoholics in “When a Man Loves a Woman” and “28 Days,” respectively.

And okay, Meryl Streep, because I’d like to ask her about the drinking in “It’s Complicated,” and if she could hold her own at the bar with the character she plays in that movie.

Finally, I’d like to interview Lindsay Lohan about what it’s like to hit rock bottom, and how she plans to pull herself out of the abyss.

Who would you like to see interviewed on Drinking Diaries?

Photo Credits: Emma Thompson, Brooke Shields

From time to time, we will post short interviews with interesting people about their thoughts and feelings on women and drinking. There is such a wide array of perspectives about this topic, and we are excited to gain insight into as many as possible and to share them with you.

Tara Handron is the author of the one-woman show, “What’s a Girl to do When It’s Time to Put Down the Drink?” (now entitled Drunk with Hope in Chicago). The play evolved out of her research of female recovering alcoholics and the comparison of their experiences in traditional face-to-face 12 Step recovery meetings versus computer mediated/online meetings.  The play is a fictional compilation and product of many women’s stories along with Tara’s observations, assumptions, and imagination. It premiered at Georgetown University in April 2008.  It was so much fun the first time, she did it all again at H St Playhouse in Washington, DC, in February 2009.

After a successful run recently in the Capital Fringe Festival, Drunk with Hope in Chicago will have its Chicago premiere in their Fringe Festival, September 2-5, 2010.  In her spare time, Tara is a change management and communications consultant in the government healthcare market in Washington, DC.

Drinking Diaries: How old were you when you had your first drink and what was it?

Tara Handron: I had sips here and there of things that looked pretty but tasted nasty like crème de menthe and whiskey sours.  My first “real” drink at 15 years old, the one that opened the golden gates, was vodka and diet coke.  It was positively disgusting, but it got the job done.

How did/does your family treat drinking?

Some treat it responsibly, as an obligation and as part of being an adult at weddings and funerals.  Some treat is as a fun party companion that stays only as long as it is welcome, never too unmanageable. Others treat it or have treated it as a substitute for water.

How do you approach alcohol in your everyday life?

I don’t.  It is a foreign country to which my visa has permanently been revoked–which is just fine.  I more than abused my privileges.

Have you ever had a phase in your life when you drank more or less?

Yes, that phase was pretty much my whole life until I stopped drinking altogether.  Some circumstances made it desirable to binge and then the awful consequences would give me pause.  Then I would temporarily drink less.  And then the cycle would start all over again.

What’s your drink of choice? Why?

Today it is carbonated water in a variety of brands. Tastes decent, feels even better, and is wonderfully calorie-free.  Being healthy (and somewhat sane) is pretty yummy, much better than a glass of wine.

Can you tell us about the best time you ever had drinking?

Honestly, no.  At this point none of them really seem all that great in retrospect.  There were some glorious moments of feeling immune to insecurity and depression and anxiety but they always ended.  Finally, in those moments, I didn’t feel like a square peg in the land of no holes, not even circular ones to try and squeeze into.  But as I said, it always ended, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, but it did end.

Has drinking ever affected—either negatively or positively—a relationship of yours?

Most definitely. Getting dumped by the man you thought you were going to marry because of awful actions you took while intoxicated felt pretty damn negative.  Without it though, many positive things might not have occurred, or might have been further delayed.

Do you have a favorite book, song, or movie about drinking?

I love Carolyn Knapp’s Drinking a Love Story.  I also love the movie, 28 Days, with Sandra Bullock.   Let’s just say they were very relatable.  Seeds were planted.

Drink a bloody mary. Take Vitamin C. Sleep. Drink Gatorade. Take a cold shower. Avoid caffeine. Drink caffeine. Get some exercise. Drink pickle juice. And on and on.

Everyone seems to have their favorite antidote for the dreaded hangover. Mine is simply to drink as much water as my body can handle with the hopes of flushing the alcohol out before the hangover symptoms kick in. Sometimes it works. Sometimes not so much.

Recently, however, I met Alissa from the Boiron company when Leah and I were at the BlogHer conference, and she told us about Nux Vomica. The name alone conjures up some less-than-attractive mental images, but I’m open to try nearly anything if it has potential to rid me of that ugly hangover feeling.

After noting my enthusiastic interest in her company’s product, Alissa sent me some information explaining how “Nux is made from the seeds of the Strychnos nux-vomica tree, native to Southeast Asia. In this safe micro-dose form, Nux provides symptomatic relief of nausea, acid indigestion, upset stomach from overindulgence of food and drink, hangovers or excessive coffee drinking.”

It goes on to suggest that while Nux is not a hangover preventative, it’s recommended to take some (Nux comes in the form of pellets and is sold at Whole Foods and many health food stores) before drinking, before going to sleep, and again in the morning if necessary.

I’m not sure it’ll beat out my water-logging strategy, but it sounds like it may be worth a try.

And, please, if you have any other hangover antidotes to recommend, share them in the comment box below so all of our readers can be on it…

Photo Source 1

In a recent Huffington Post piece titled “The Hidden Health Benefits of Alcohol?” writer, psychologist and addiction expert Stanton Peele addresses a recent government report on drinking and the elderly.

Peele’s post discusses the impact of the 2010 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and how they validate that moderate drinking results in longer life and less incidence of dementia. To the contrary, a recent NY Times article reveals nothing of its benefits, but rather drinking’s negative impacts on the elderly.

Peele writes:

Taken together, the contrasting (or are they complimentary) emphases “drinking is only beneficial to older Americans,” “drinking is most harmful to older Americans,” sound like the punch line for a Groucho Marx joke — “You should never drink before you are old, and then you should quit.

Needless to say, the comments came rolling in with a vengeance. Peele responded with another post, “We Don’t Believe Alcohol’s Good For You!” in which he decided that rather than “piss people off individually, I thought I could piss everybody off more efficiently with this follow-up post.”

Some of the comments raise issues concerning politics, industry, advertising and medicine. It’s fascinating and frustrating. Yet it’s the good and bad, ups and downs, and yin and yang of women and drinking that we believe the Drinking Diaries is all about. Always feels free to share your thoughts…

Photo Source

My mom’s been sober for nearly forty years, without having a relapse (pretty amazing, right?)—but her perfect record is hardly typical.

The old thinking on recovering from an addiction was black and white. Relapse was seen as a catastrophe, according to Kathleen McGowan in her excellent article in Psychology Today, “The New Quitter.”

But there is a new psychology of addiction, according to McGowan—“the abstincence-only doctrines that once dominated the thinking about addiction have given way to a more flexible—and more forgiving—approach.

Why the shift? Studies have shown that relapsing is the rule, not the exception. If you hit a bump in your recovery, you’re not alone. “Up to 80 percent of alcoholics treated for a drinking problem will hit the bottle again at least once.”  The number one predictor of relapse? Emotional stress—anxiety, depression or upset.

So what is the key to surviving relapse(s)?  Look at backsliding as a chance to learn and an opportunity to develop better ways of anticipating, avoiding, or overcoming urges. See lapses as mistakes rather than defeat.

Here are some tips from the Pros:

–Learn to identify the situations that might push you into a relapse. What are your triggers? Meeting up with an old drinking buddy? Going to an office party, where drinking will be involved?

–Make a concrete plan to counteract or avoid the situations that might trigger a relapse.  (Example: Plan your route so you won’t pass your favorite wine store, if that’s a trigger).

–Use a cognitive trick called “urge surfing”—mentally detach yourself from the craving by monitoring the way your desire builds and then recedes. Visualize your craving as a wave that rises and falls. Imagine riding the wave, rather than struggling against it.

–Cultivate a vivid memory of the past you are trying to leave behind.

–Develop meaningful life goals, which may have been forgotten or cast aside in the throes of addiction.

–Reconnect with things that give you pleasure, enjoyment, and meaning (Taking walks, taking a bath, whatever floats your boat).

–If you are in the throes of a life-threatening or mind-altering addiction, get professional help to understand your triggers and come up with a plan.

Most importantly, do something. According to McGowan, “People who use some kind of coping technique are 25 times more likely to resist the temptation than those who try to just gut it out.”

And finally: Give yourself a break. Recognize that “the work of kicking an addiction may never be fully complete.” The new thinking is that addiction is a chronic disease that can never be fully cured. Celebrate every day you keep yourself sober after a relapse. Little successes lead to big success.

From time to time, we will post short interviews with interesting people about their thoughts and feelings on women and drinking. There is such a wide array of perspectives about this topic, and we are excited to gain insight into as many as possible and to share them with you.

Laura Munson is the author of the bestselling memoir, “This Is Not the Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness” (Amy Einhorn/Putnam). She lives in Montana with her family.

Drinking Diaries: How old were you when you had  your first drink and what was it?

Laura Munson: Sixth Grade.  My brother bought my friend and me a six pack of Lowenbrau.  We mixed it with vodka from her parents’ liquor cabinet in plastic Crate and Barrel mugs, (re-filling the vodka bottle with water), went to the ice-skating rink to flirt with boys, made total fools of ourselves, and I threw up in the car on the way home.  Told my parents I’d hit my head on the ice.  A proud moment.

How did/does your family treat drinking?

Drinking was for celebration and letting down your hair (which, where I grew up, was pretty pageboy/bobby-pinned perfect).  Some of my fondest memories were of my parents’ parties– all those responsible adults who drove carpool and made us grilled cheese sandwiches would turn into caricatures of themselves, giving me big bosomy hugs with gin breath, a thick layer of smoke enshrouding the living room.  They made it look so fun.  And I don’t remember anyone ever throwing up.

What’s your drink of choice? Why?

Red wine.  It reminds me of the year I lived in Italy and how the family I lived with would savor the Chianti they made, pouring it from old fiascos into low glasses like jelly jars.  I never once saw any of them drunk.  For them, wine is soul food.  They respect it.  They don’t abuse it.  The Italians are good teachers that way.

Can you tell us about the best time you ever had drinking?

It was the year “Graceland” came out.  I was 20, lying on a black sand nude beach on an island in Greece listening to it on my Walkman with a group of Auzzies, drinking Retsina and knowing that life would probably never be that good again.  I was wrong.  Sort of.  (I’d kill to have that body back though!)

What about the worst time?

Doing a Madge Wildwood (“Breakfast at Tiffany’s”) timber in my living room in front of my entire family in the scene mentioned in my memoir.  Every so often, there’s a rebel voice in me that kicks in when I’m under a lot of pressure or people are trying to control or run me.  And I go into “F**k It” mode, which means there’s booze involved.  Nothing good ever comes from “F**k It” mode, and I get to re-learn that the rebel is not necessarily or even usually free.

Do you have a favorite book, song, or movie about drinking?

There’s a book “Alcohol and the Writer” that I find fascinating.  Fitzgerald.  Hemingway.  Steinbeck.  Faulkner.  O’Neill.  Poe.  Kerouac.  Bukowski.  Capote.   Dorothy Parker.  Katherine Anne Porter.  All of them alcoholics.  I’d like to see a new paradigm.

What do you like most about drinking?

I like the pause I take with a glass of wine.  But there are other ways to take pause.  The main thing is to savor it.  Not gulp it.  Gulping pauses is not very calming.  I know because I have definitely gulped.

If you could be any drink, what would it be? Why?

I’d be a bottle of Bandol– Domaine Tempier, probably their rose, sitting in the middle of a table at its vineyard in France with: Lulu Peyraud, Alice Waters, Marcella Hazan, Mario Batali, Giuliano Bugialli, Anthony Bourdain, and Jim Harrison.  To be consumed not by just what these wonders do on the page and in the kitchen, but to actually be swallowed whole by them.

Today we offer you an excerpt from prize-winning author Lily King’s new novel, which spans three decades of a volatile relationship between a frighteningly charismatic, alcoholic father and the daughter who cannot help but love him. Beginning in 1974 and ending in 2008, Father of the Rain traces the lives and loves of a family wrenched apart by one man’s drinking. Enjoy…

It’s all done with such precision: the ice into the monogrammed glass, the snap of the paper across the cap of a new bottle of Smirnoff’s, the splash of vermouth, the tiny onions jiggled out so carefully. Then the pause, and then the sip, his eyes pulled shut by pleasure. I’ve never noticed what an act of love it all is…

My father is watching the news in the den. It’s strange to see him back in that room with his ashtray and his drink, as if he never left it for the sunroom and all those years with Catherine. A couch has replaced the recliners that replaced the couch my mother took to Water Street. The room looks almost back to normal, though the slipcovers are made of a nubby wool, something my mother wouldn’t have chosen. He bends his head down to watch the television, his eyes straining up just beneath their hoods. A woman is discussing affirmative action on some courthouse steps. She speaks articulately, quickly, trying to get the most words into her few seconds of time on national TV.

“Why are black people always talking about black people?” my father says in his disgusting version of an African American accent, though the woman speaking has the regionless accent of a newscaster. “Have you noticed that?”

“Because in this country they are defined by their skin color, and they’ve had to fight for every basic right that we get automatically by being born white.”

“Fighting for their rights? This woman is fighting for inequality. This woman wants a black C student to be chosen over a straight A-student. She’s fighting for their right to cheat.”

My retort constructs itself swiftly. I’ve got a lot of ammo now on this question, yet none of my knowledge will help me win a fight with my father. He will cling to his position even when all reason fails him; he will cling to it as if it’s his life and not his opinion that is in peril. He will get vicious and personal, and every negative thing he ever felt about me will pour out of his mouth. Ridding my father of his racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric would take a long time. It would be a whole reeducation. His prejudices are a stew of self-hatred, ignorance, and fear. If those feelings could be rooted out and examined somehow, maybe he wouldn’t have to drink so much to squelch the pain of them.

“You don’t have much of an answer to that, do you?”

Would Jonathan be horrified at my cowardice? Would he understand that to argue would be futile, would wound me deeply and do nothing to change him.

“I’m going to get dinner started.” I can hear my mother in my tone with him. “Do you want me to call you when I’m ready to make the hollandaise?”

“The what?” Then he remembers. “Okay. Sure.”

But when it’s time, he slouches against the counter with his hands in his pockets, staring but unseeing as I whisk the egg yolks in a saucepan and add cubes of butter, one at a time.

“It’s so easy, Dad. The only trick is to get the flame as low as possible and keep stirring. It’ll curdle if it gets too hot. Here, you take the whisk.” He takes it and, in a fairly good imitation of me, flicks the wire bulb through the thickening sauce. Hope swells in my chest. I have this idea that if he can make his own hollandaise he’ll be okay. And if he can learn to make both hollandaise and wash his clothes, he won’t need a wife at all.

At the table, A-1 sauce slathered over his rib eye, hollandaise over his asparagus, he is grateful. And very drunk. “You’re a goddamn good cook, you know that?

Lily King is the author of three novels. The Pleasing Hour (1999) won the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and was a New York Times Notable Book and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her second, The English Teacher, was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Maine Fiction Award. Father of the Rain, her third novel, was published in July, 2010. Lily is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and a Whiting Award. Her short fiction has appeared in literary magazines including Ploughshares and Glimmer Train, as well as in several anthologies. Her website is lilykingbooks.com. Read more about King in her recent Drinking Diaries interview.

In his essay, “Drink What You Know,” Geoff Nicholson shared some quirky drinking advice from writers. But–he warns–the problem with offering advice is that “people think you’re talking sense only when your prejudices coincide with theirs. Dissenters tend to raise the question ‘Who asked you anyway?’…People telling you how to drink is every bit as tedious and annoying as people telling you not to drink at all.”

So what was the advice? Here’s a sampling:

From Bernard DeVoto in “The Hour” (1948, and recently reissued): “Hot drinks are for people who have had skiing accidents.”

From Christopher Hitchens’ memoir, “Hitch-22”: “Drink when you are in a good mood”, “It’s not true that you shouldn’t drink alone,” and “Cheap booze is a false economy.”

From Kingsley Amis, whose novel “Lucky Jim,” has been mentioned by a few of our Drinking Diaries interviewees as being their favorite book about drinking: For his martini recipe in “Everyday Drinking,” he says, “Use a British vodka, the cheapest you can find.”

From Jack Kerouac:  “Try never get drunk outside your own house.”

Perhaps the best advice comes from writer Dorothy Parker, who said, “I wish I could drink like a lady. I can take one or two at the most. Three and I’m under the table. Four and I’m under the host.”

Nicholson himself offers this gem: “Nothing could be worse for a drinker than to marry someone who thinks drinking is a bad idea.” True, that. And vice versa.

I was often told not to mix red and white wine, or beer and hard liquor. Also, “Beer after liquor, never sicker,” or something like that. I could never remember the correct order. Maybe it was “Beer before liquor, never sicker”?

Caveat: As Nicholson points out, “However good the advice, the person on the receiving end is never going to be able to take somebody else’s word for it. You have to find out about these things for yourself, usually the hard way.”

Here’s some practical drinking advice I found via Cocktail Times and Liquor Snob:

Eat Before You Drink: The fructose in foods will help absorb alcohol.

Hydrate. Think of it this way, for every glass of non-alcoholic beverage you drink now you will save yourself from having to drink two glasses in the morning.

Don’t mix it up: Make it a beer night, or a wine night, or a vodka night, but don’t make it an “anything goes” night.

Drink water in between alcoholic drinks to prevent dehydration.

Keep a large bottle of water by the bed you’re crashing/sleeping on.

Before Bed: Take two aspirin with a full glass of water – the prostaglandin inhibitors in the aspirin can decrease hangover severity.

In the Morning: Take two more aspirin with a full glass of water – This has been shown to minimize headaches as well as decrease inflammation from leftover prostaglandin.

Which brings me to this: What’s the best, funniest, most sound or most ridiculous drinking advice you’ve ever received?

Ad execs don’t create their ads in a vacuum. They troll facebook, twitter, and even hold parties and focus groups to find out what women want (at least as far as drinking goes).

When researching their ad campaign for Van Gogh Blue vodka, the execs found Facebook groups such as O.M.G. I So Need a Glass of Wine or I’m Gonna Sell My Kids, which has almost 111,000 people who like it, and It Wasn’t My Fault, the Vodka Made Me Do It, with more than 217,000 people. (To that list, we would add Moms Who Need Wine–whose founder we interviewed–with over 273,000 members.)

So what did the Van Gogh Blue vodka team come up with, after all their research into their target audience, women—ages 25 to 44? The following ads (with messages provided by moi):

–A woman sits on a bar stool, sipping a cocktail from a martini glass . The headline: “Better a dry spell in men than a drought of vodka.” Another headline with the same image: “Women who don’t wear underwear never get their panties in a bunch.” MESSAGE: Van Gogh vodka is better than sex. Sexy, laid-back women drink Van Gogh vodka. No frumps here.

–A bottle of Van Gogh Blue. The headline: “She who gets the bartender’s number first wins. Unless of course there’s a hot DJ.” MESSAGE: Van Gogh drinkers are hot, and hot on the trail. Again, sex.

–A leggy woman holds a martini glass aloft. The headline: “I like my vodka straight but my friends can go either way.” MESSAGE: Van Gogh drinkers are open-minded, easy and free.

On Twitter, Van Gogh describes itself like this: “Come unbottled with the only triple wheat premium vodka that’s guaranteed to be smoother than most of the men you meet out at the bars. O.K., all.” MESSAGE: Van Gogh drinkers need men like a fish needs a bicycle.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of Van Gogh and blue, I think of loneliness, melancholy, solitude and the artist’s alleged dependence on alcohol.

That is probably the last image the execs responsible for the new Van Gogh Blue ad campaign want me to conjure up. But still, I do.

Their slogan, “You, unbottled,” is meant to evoke endless girls’ nights out with your buddies, girls’ nights so fun and rewarding, the pictures end up on Twitter and facebook, and you don’t feel ashamed! After all, you’re celebrating your “fun, silly, colorful side.”

Sure, many of us have enjoyed those wonderful nights. But–as anyone who has been addicted to alcohol knows–“You, unbottled” can be a dangerous thing.

Photo by Skye Parrott

From time to time, we will post short interviews with interesting people about their thoughts and feelings on women and drinking. There is such a wide array of perspectives about this topic, and we are excited to gain insight into as many as possible and to share them with you.

Sloane Crosley is the author of the New York Times-bestselling “I Was Told There’d Be Cake,” which was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor and is in development as a series at HBO. Her most recent book of personal essays is “How Did You Get This Number.” She lives in New York City, where she works as the Deputy Director of Publicity at Vintage Books.

Drinking Diaries: How old were you when you had your first drink and what was it?

Sloane Crosley: I don’t remember. I was probably in 7th grade. But I don’t recall that sparking a drinking streak. I think I just found myself at a party with some older kids and it was probably beer. There’s a sweet scene in one of those bad Jennifer Love Hewitt movies where the dorky kid has his first sip of keg beer and freaks out, screaming, “The beer is bad! No one drink the beer!” I was probably like that.

How do you approach alcohol in your every day life?

Slowly and with great care. I wouldn’t want to knock over the drinks.

Have you ever had a phase in  your life when you drank more or less?

Sure. College. The idea that one can or can’t know how to drink is strange. It’s booze, not a law degree. But I will say that I didn’t know how to drink in college and spent a generous portion of my time teaching myself how to do it.

What’s your drink of choice? Why?

I like a Maker’s and ginger ale in the winter and a Dark and Stormy in the summer. I also like vodka. Though once I asked after a vodka-based drink at Death & Co. in New York and the waitress was kind of a bitch about it, to tell you the truth. Instead of saying, “We don’t serve vodka,” she said, “Oh, do you not like the taste of alcohol?” Right, then.

Has culture of religion influenced your drinking?

Not really. I’m Jewish so we’re not really huge drinkers as a culture/religion but we’re also not prudes about drugs and alcohol in general. So I was kind of raised with a clean slate. Of course, my parents were strict people. But that’s not religion. That’s my parents.

Do you have a favorite book, song, or movie about drinking?

Maybe “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues. Also there’s a great anthology that Chronicle Books put out years ago called “Drinking, Smoking & Screwing.” That’s a good reader for booze.

Why do you, or don’t you, choose to drink?

These days I drink a lot with food so I make my choice that way.

How has alcoholism affected your life?

It hasn’t. I’ve been close to people who’ve written memoirs or thinly veiled fictional accounts of alcohol abuse.

Sad but true. A growing number of college-age women are starving themselves, not necessarily to lose weight, but to save calories for drinking alcohol and beer.

According to a recent article on HerCampus.com, a website started by three female Harvard students, the trend of late is Drunkorexia– a hybrid between anorexia, bulimia, and alcoholism. It was only a matter of time, say experts, before substance abuse and eating disorders merged.

Statistics from the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) suggest that 30 percent of women ages 18-24 skip meals in order to drink more, while an estimated up to 10 percent of college women suffer from some form of an eating disorder. And a 2002 study from the Journal of Studies on Alcohol suggested that 31 percent of college students met criteria for alcohol abuse, while another 6 percent met the criteria for alcohol dependence.

In the HerCampus.com piece, Nancy Mucciarone gets the inside scoop from a variety of college students who are on the front lines of the Drunkorexia craze.

One student described it like this: “One of my friends wouldn’t eat at all before she went out, then would get super drunk, and drunk eat a lot—pizza, macaroni and cheese, whatever she could get her hands on and would make herself throw it up. She’d claim she was so drunk and didn’t mean to throw up but it was clearly intentional.”

Photo Source

Greetings, Drinking Diaries readers! We had an amazing time at BlogHer 2010, a conference for women bloggers which was held at the New York Hilton on August 5-6.

The best thing about the conference, besides the yummy desserts and the cool giveaways (a less expensive version of Spanx is particularly noteworthy), was the chance to meet face-to-face and schmooze with some of our Drinking Diaries contributors. Some of them we’ve already met, and some we haven’t–and we realized that we’ve built up quite a community of smart, plugged-in women. It’s great.

Let us introduce you to the amazing women we ran into at the conference. If you click on their name, you’ll be directed to their Drinking Diaries post(s), where you can also find links to their blogs:

Gretchen Rubin, of The Happiness Project

Caren (l.), Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project, and Leah (r.)

Ellie, of One Crafty Mother

Becky Sherrick Harks of Mommy Wants Vodka

Laura Vanderkam, who wrote a book called, “168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think,” (she should know; she brought her 10-month-old to the conference)

Rachel Sarah of Single Mom Seeking

And then there were the women we were excited to meet–women bloggers whose voices we think you, our readers, would be interested to hear. They are:

Maggie dammit, of the blogs, OkayFineDammit and ViolenceUnSilenced, about domestic and other forms of abuse

Caren (l.), Aunt Becky of mommywantsvodka.com and Leah (r.)

Alissa Gould, who is not a blogger, but a PR person at the homeopathic company, BOIRON. She told us about using Nux Vomica for hangovers.

Polly Palumbo, Ph.D., of mommadata, a scientist who digs deep to find the real truth behind all those studies. We think we’ll have a lot to learn from her

Stephanie Wilchfort of The Mama Bee, a blog about women, work and the politics of Motherhood

Tara Cousineau, a therapist who is starting a blog for teens called Bodimojo, about health, fitness & fun. We’re sure she’ll have some things to say about teens and drinking when her site is up later this year.

We heard through the grapevine that the Debbie and Kamy from one of our favorite hangouts, She Writes were there, but alas, we didn’t run into them.

So–keep coming back to Drinking Diaries and adding your thoughts and feelings and sharing your stories. Your stories help other women so much, whether they are about celebration, revelation or devastation. You, our readers and writers, can’t be pinned down or labeled: drinkers, abstainers, children or sisters or mothers or lovers of drinkers, recovering alcoholics, active alcoholics, married, unmarried, single, divorced, straight, gay, bi-sexual, childless by choice or happenstance, mothers, stepmothers–you run the gamut. The one thing you all have in common is your lives have been touched by alcohol, for better or worse.

We learn from all of you. And we hope you enjoy discovering new voices, as we do…

Caren & Leah