Thread: History's 10 Most Accomplished Drunks

All of these lists are subjective - so! - add your own or feel free to disagree.

Here is someone's top ten. Now I know that even though I'm a boozer, I can suceed!

By Sean Braswell Follow @seanbraswell
While many of us have put back a few on occasion, it takes a special man or woman to hold a drink while holding down a hugely demanding job. OZY takes a look back at history’s 10 most functional boozehounds.

10. The Queen Mother
The late mother of Queen Elizabeth II is rumored to have consumed a bottle of gin a day, but that did not stop her from performing public duties until the ripe old age of 101. Once, while growing impatient for a gin and tonic, she is reported to have asked the members of her largely gay personal staff, “When one of you old queens has finished, can you bring this old queen a drink?”


9. William Faulkner
The great American writer was fond of saying that “civilization begins with distillation,” a motto he adhered to closely. He was also fond of hot toddies and whiskey. “I usually write at night,” he once said. “I always keep my whiskey within reach.”

8. Bette Davis
One of Hollywood’s greatest leading ladies, Davis enjoyed a career that spanned seven decades. The actress was known for her wit, strong personality and affection for a good drink. And as she got older, the cocktail hour got younger, eventually settling into a comfortable spot right after lunch.

7. W.C. Fields
The legendary comedian and film star of the 1930s was also a legendary drunk. Fields kept a martini-filled flask on hand whenever he was on a film set; he referred to it as his “lemonade.” One story goes that someone once poured actual lemonade into the actor’s flask, prompting Fields to holler, “Who put lemonade in my lemonade?”

6. Alexander the Great
Alexander of Macedon managed to conquer most of the known world — either in spite or because of a prodigious appetite for the hard stuff — by his death at age 32 in 323 B.C. Alexander is rumored to have killed one of his own men in a drunken rage, and historians still debate whether he presided over a drunken orgy that ultimately led to the arson of the magnificent Persian palace in Persepolis in 330 B.C.


5. Dorothy Parker
The wisecracking and prolific American writer and poet once remarked that “one more drink and I’d have been under the host.” Parker could famously outdrink her male compatriots in New York’s Algonquin Round Table during the 1920s.

4. Frank Sinatra
Ol’ Blue Eyes enjoyed one of the most productive singing and performing careers of the 20th century, and did so with a tumbler of whiskey in hand at almost all times. “The Bourbon Baritone” was even buried by his children with a bottle of Jack Daniels in his coat pocket.

3. Ernest Hemingway
Like his fellow writer Faulkner, Papa stuck to a motto. His version: “A man does not exist until he is drunk.” After he was ordered by doctors to curb his drinking in 1939, Hemingway tried to limit himself to three Scotches before dinner. He couldn’t pull it off. Nor could he cut out his breakfast tea and gin, or his midday snack of absinthe, vodka and wine.

2. Winston Churchill
The legendary British prime minister was known for imbibing large quantities of alcohol, particularly in the later stages of World War II, and he openly admitted to relying on it. He typically had a glass of whiskey at his desk, and he drank brandy and Champagne at both lunch and dinner.

1. Boris Yeltsin
While it might be unusual to find a Russian leader who wasn’t a heavy drinker, Yeltsin put his predecessors to shame. He often appeared drunk in public, including at high-profile diplomatic events. The late president’s epic drinking is memorialized in a Simpsons episode, in which the highest reading of a Breathalyzer registers as “Yeltsin.”

Honorable Mentions: Mickey Mantle, Christopher Hitchens, Ulysses S. Grant and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

These were different times — different eras, even — and, today, high-functioning alcoholics have ways to seek help and can even look to well-known public figures who’ve come forward to share their own battles with alcohol and their roads to recovery. To these 10 who somehow made it by the skin of their teeth, we raise a glass to say salud, and we ask you all to please drink responsibly.


http://www.ozy.com/flashback/history...0ALL%20Devices

Robbie Burns



A major drunk but a great poet!

Wot, no Chalerm?

POR

Drinks Lao Kao every waking minute of every day, and does so for free - charging his pastime to a fat falang farmer who resides thousands of miles away.

A true pro.

Hunter S. Thompson is my favorite accomplished drunk.

Originally Posted by misskit

Hunter S. Thompson is my favorite accomplished drunk.

He was more into psilocybin & THC than booze?

Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.

I drink, therefor I am

What!!!!!!!!!! No Oliver Reed

Ulyssius S. Grant

General of the Union Army in the American civil war and later President of the US.

Don't know much about him, just that he was a drunk.

Here's a couple omitted from that distinguished listing...


Drinking mates 'til the end.
Keith Moon & Oliver Reed.

Originally Posted by Black Heart

All of these lists are subjective - so! - add your own or feel free to disagree.

Here is someone's top ten. Now I know that even though I'm a boozer, I can suceed!

By Sean Braswell Follow @seanbraswell
While many of us have put back a few on occasion, it takes a special man or woman to hold a drink while holding down a hugely demanding job. OZY takes a look back at history’s 10 most functional boozehounds.

10. The Queen Mother
The late mother of Queen Elizabeth II is rumored to have consumed a bottle of gin a day, but that did not stop her from performing public duties until the ripe old age of 101. Once, while growing impatient for a gin and tonic, she is reported to have asked the members of her largely gay personal staff, “When one of you old queens has finished, can you bring this old queen a drink?”


9. William Faulkner
The great American writer was fond of saying that “civilization begins with distillation,” a motto he adhered to closely. He was also fond of hot toddies and whiskey. “I usually write at night,” he once said. “I always keep my whiskey within reach.”

8. Bette Davis
One of Hollywood’s greatest leading ladies, Davis enjoyed a career that spanned seven decades. The actress was known for her wit, strong personality and affection for a good drink. And as she got older, the cocktail hour got younger, eventually settling into a comfortable spot right after lunch.

7. W.C. Fields
The legendary comedian and film star of the 1930s was also a legendary drunk. Fields kept a martini-filled flask on hand whenever he was on a film set; he referred to it as his “lemonade.” One story goes that someone once poured actual lemonade into the actor’s flask, prompting Fields to holler, “Who put lemonade in my lemonade?”

6. Alexander the Great
Alexander of Macedon managed to conquer most of the known world — either in spite or because of a prodigious appetite for the hard stuff — by his death at age 32 in 323 B.C. Alexander is rumored to have killed one of his own men in a drunken rage, and historians still debate whether he presided over a drunken orgy that ultimately led to the arson of the magnificent Persian palace in Persepolis in 330 B.C.


5. Dorothy Parker
The wisecracking and prolific American writer and poet once remarked that “one more drink and I’d have been under the host.” Parker could famously outdrink her male compatriots in New York’s Algonquin Round Table during the 1920s.

4. Frank Sinatra
Ol’ Blue Eyes enjoyed one of the most productive singing and performing careers of the 20th century, and did so with a tumbler of whiskey in hand at almost all times. “The Bourbon Baritone” was even buried by his children with a bottle of Jack Daniels in his coat pocket.

3. Ernest Hemingway
Like his fellow writer Faulkner, Papa stuck to a motto. His version: “A man does not exist until he is drunk.” After he was ordered by doctors to curb his drinking in 1939, Hemingway tried to limit himself to three Scotches before dinner. He couldn’t pull it off. Nor could he cut out his breakfast tea and gin, or his midday snack of absinthe, vodka and wine.

2. Winston Churchill
The legendary British prime minister was known for imbibing large quantities of alcohol, particularly in the later stages of World War II, and he openly admitted to relying on it. He typically had a glass of whiskey at his desk, and he drank brandy and Champagne at both lunch and dinner.

1. Boris Yeltsin
While it might be unusual to find a Russian leader who wasn’t a heavy drinker, Yeltsin put his predecessors to shame. He often appeared drunk in public, including at high-profile diplomatic events. The late president’s epic drinking is memorialized in a Simpsons episode, in which the highest reading of a Breathalyzer registers as “Yeltsin.”

Honorable Mentions: Mickey Mantle, Christopher Hitchens, Ulysses S. Grant and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

These were different times — different eras, even — and, today, high-functioning alcoholics have ways to seek help and can even look to well-known public figures who’ve come forward to share their own battles with alcohol and their roads to recovery. To these 10 who somehow made it by the skin of their teeth, we raise a glass to say salud, and we ask you all to please drink responsibly.


http://www.ozy.com/flashback/history...0ALL%20Devices

More honourable mentions....

Somtamslap
Withnall stoke
Myself

How could you forget the Champion?

¢éͤÇÒÁá¨é§¡ÒÃà»ÅÕè¹àÊé¹·Ò§

Originally Posted by Silverback

How could you forget the Champion?

¢éͤÇÒÁá¨é§¡ÒÃà»ÅÕè¹àÊé¹·Ò§

How is it that all the brilliant types lent themselves to drink.....or other stimulants?

Originally Posted by thaimeme

Originally Posted by Silverback

How could you forget the Champion?

¢éͤÇÒÁá¨é§¡ÒÃà»ÅÕè¹àÊé¹·Ò§

How is it that all the brilliant types lent themselves to drink.....or other stimulants?

They had to escape from the banality of the system?

Originally Posted by Bogon

withnallstoke Had to be dragged away from a pub near the airport with a few hours (and no sleep) left until his flight to Fromageland. He possessed a small (Shifter) bag, pouch of rolling tobacco, rolling papers that suggest tobacco was not the only substance used for inhaling, a used book with "sticky" pages donated from somtamslap and a name of a hotel that he didn't actually reserve/know where the hell it was. Back at Bogon Mansions for an hour or 2 kip, he gave a slight rendition on the guitar and was last seen hailing a cab from petrol station with a ham and cheese toastie. Legend...

With all respect, i remember that.

Stayed well sober.

Originally Posted by Black Heart

[I]All of these lists are subjective - so! - add your own or feel free to disagree.
and Champagne at both lunch and dinner.


http://www.ozy.com/flashback/history...0ALL%20Devices

I'm shocked you didn't put Winston Churchill at #1...Boris Yeltsin would get barely a footnote in world history.

George Best deserves a mention. His son has serialised his story in the 'Irish Daily Mail'. Drank himself to death by age 50. Quite a sad case. I'm sure his son will always be wondering what his life could have been like if his father had been a fitter and turner, or something...

Originally Posted by withnallstoke

With all respect, i remember that.

But conveniently forgot....

Originally Posted by Bogon

He possessed a small (Shifter) bag

"Nobody looks twice at men walking around shopping malls with a 'Manbag' nowadays"

I walked around a shopping mall with a friends leather one, only because he left it at the bar mind, but I must admit I couldn't look anyone in the eye and felt a right filthy bent barstard.

But apparently if you don't throw it over your head and just wear it on the one shoulder, it's not gay

Originally Posted by snakeeyes

Drunk Boris Yeltsin was found outside White House in underpants trying to hail cab 'because he wanted some pizza

[/B]
Drunk Boris Yeltsin found outside White House in underpants trying to hail cab 'because he wanted some pizza' | Daily Mail Online

Shit...us Irish couldn't top that one, not even on Paddy's Day.
Oscar Wilde should have an honourable mention:
"Drink is the curse of the working classes".

[QUOTE=thaimeme;2979529]Here's a couple omitted from that distinguished listing...

Drinking mates 'til the end.
Keith Moon & Oliver Reed.
[QUOTE]

Oliver Reed was absolutely a spectacular drunk, on the same level as Shane McGowan at least. I recall a TV appearance in 1975 on Irish TV's Late Late Show. Susan George was also a guest and at one point he grabbed her out of the chair and threw her on the floor, got on top of her and started to do the bump and grind...

I believe Charlie Sheen has that same kind of near suicidal devlotion to drink/substances...Brendan Behan had that same reputation in the 50s...when you think of it, poets were the rock stars of their day. People would flock to see him (for possibly the same reason they went to see Charlie Sheen's illfated comedy tour), cos there was an element of the train wreck about them. People never knew if tonight would be the night he would finally crack up...

[QUOTE=Paddy Whackery;2979694][QUOTE=thaimeme;2979529]Here's a couple omitted from that distinguished listing...

Drinking mates 'til the end.
Keith Moon & Oliver Reed.

Oliver Reed was absolutely a spectacular drunk, on the same level as Shane McGowan at least. I recall a TV appearance in 1975 on Irish TV's Late Late Show. Susan George was also a guest and at one point he grabbed her out of the chair and threw her on the floor, got on top of her and started to do the bump and grind...

I believe Charlie Sheen has that same kind of near suicidal devlotion to drink/substances...Brendan Behan had that same reputation in the 50s...when you think of it, poets were the rock stars of their day. People would flock to see him (for possibly the same reason they went to see Charlie Sheen's illfated comedy tour), cos there was an element of the train wreck about them. People never knew if tonight would be the night he would finally crack up...

Brendan Behan (1923 - 1964),

“It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's rather that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody.”

“I am a drinker with writing problems.”

“The most important things to do in the world are to get something to eat, something to drink and somebody to love you.”

“There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.”

“The big difference between sex for money and sex for free is that sex for money usually costs a lot less.”

“Other people have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.”

“I have never seen a situation so dismal that a policeman couldn't make it worse.”

“One drink is too many for me and a thousand not enough.”

“New York is my Lourdes, where I go for spiritual refreshment... a place where you're least likely to be bitten by a wild goat.”

“What the hell difference does it make, left or right? There were good men lost on both sides.”
“I am a daylight atheist.”

“If it was raining soup, the Irish would go out with forks.”

“Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves.”

I've made into the top 10 sore heads today.

Damn you Patrick!