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Massively off-topic – but in American English is "a couple drinks" correct? British English would be "a couple of drinks". Just curious – I notice this a lot of US tech blogs.

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As an American, it's conversationally idiomatic, but not generally considered "correct." You'd expect to hear someone speak it, but you would not typically expect to read it in an essay.

'a couple of drinks' -> 'a coupla drinks' -> 'a couple drinks'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_reduction

I never thought of that as being strange. I think it's used this way because it fits with "a few," you know? "I had a few drinks," "I had a couple drinks." But fwiw, "I had a couple of drinks" doesn't sound wrong to me.

There's a little bit of discussion about that usage being an "Americanism" here: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/couple

It sounds wrong to me, and I see a lot of commenters here using "couple <insert item here>".

To me in the UK, I would shove an "of" in there. "A couple of drinks".

Perhaps those across the pond miss this important "of" word out.

I can't comment on it being correct or incorrect, but I believe that it is acceptable in informal speech, at least in American English.

Both sound natural to my American ears.

This is common usage. I couldn't begin to tell you if it's "correct" or not.

If it's common usage, it's correct.

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