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Comment by aimor | Hacker News Reader

My grandfather (who died because of his smoking addiction) had a number of ashtrays I distinctly remember. There was a push-down one that would spin, depositing the ashes and butts into a trap door compartment inside. There was one made of old coins bent and welded together. Of course simple glass ones around the house. The truck had an ash tray built in, with a lid mechanism so it could be removed and emptied without making a mess. Go to estate sales and you'll see them sometimes.

The statistics can be really surprising to people: "Only 40% of people smoked?" and "Wow, that many?" equally likely. Drinking alcohol is similar in that regard, people are amazed (for opposite reasons) to find out 60% of Americans drink.

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> Drinking alcohol is similar in that regard, people are amazed (for opposite reasons) to find out 60% of Americans drink.

I'm technically in that 60%, but I drink so infrequently I barely qualify (outside of certain social events, I never drink, and never more than 2 drinks). I think I had about a dozen drinks in all of 2022.

I wonder what percent of that 60% are similar to me.

I'm in a similar boat. All of my friends are sober alcoholics (both coincidence and networking) and so aside from rare occasion with family, I don't drink alcohol and honestly don't enjoy the feeling anymore.

I doubt I average more than a drink a month. My extended family, however, might have several a week (glass of wine with dinner, or an after-dinner cocktail). Get far enough out into the countryside, and driving after drinking is, if not normal, then at least hardly frowned upon unless you're not able to walk straight.

More and more often, I find myself thinking that if there is a choice to be made, someone somewhere will take it.

60% isn't a startling figure. What is, is that 90% of the alcohol sold is consumed by 10%, most of whom are essentially functional alcoholics. 1 in 10 of the people you encounter daily.

Well it's better than being a dysfunctional alcholic I suppose.

Roughly half https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/3i83rv/til_i...

I tell people that I don't not drink. The reality is I drink when I want but I almost never want. I am sure that people like me are part of that 60%.

Only 60% of Americans drink? I routinely get astonished looks when I tell people that I've never in my life even tried a drop of alcohol. It seems like way more than 60% have had alcohol.

When someone says that they drink, they usually either mean that they drink regularly or that they will drink again in the future. There are plenty of people who have consumed alcohol who never found much of a use for the stuff.

I would never say that I don't drink. So I wouldn't be part of the (in the case you refer to) 40%. But I almost never drink, and never very much anymore. Some years I've had maybe a couple of beers. I will take a little glass of wine a few times a year, at dinners. But I never feel the need to open a beer or drink wine at home. Had to dump most of my wine collection a while ago, the bottles were so old that when I checked, most of them had become vinegar. But if people ask if I don't drink alcohol I would never say "I don't". Because I do. I just don't have a wish to, most of the time.

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