Drinking

Molly Shattuck might have hung up her cheerleading pompoms, but she's still got game. The oldest cheerleader in NFL history when she made the Ravens' squad in 2005, Shattuck, now 44, remains in age-defying shape and immersed in venture premised on taut abs and high kicks. She has just launched a website and video devoted to exercise and other healthful habits, called Molly Shattuck Vibrant Living. "I want to show the exercises and routines that have worked for me, but it's so much more than that," said Shattuck, who also offers advice on healthful eating and drinking at mollyshattuck.com.

In 2008, Ed DeRosa witnessed the infamy of the Preakness infield - the passed-out partiers, the chucking of full beer cans into crowds and of course, the "Running of the Urinals," where drunken infielders ran down a row of portable toilets. DeRosa, a horse-racing reporter from Lexington, Ky., who attended Preakness from 2005 to 2011, says nothing could have prepared a first-timer for the debauchery. "I was in Vegas for New Year's Eve a couple times, and until I had been to the Preakness infield, that was the craziest I'd ever seen people behave," DeRosa, now 33, said.

If the julep ceremonial previously described is too fussy for you, I offer a traditional drinking game from the Commonwealth.  Two people go into a room. Each has a bottle of bourbon.* They sit at leisure, drinking and talking.  When the whiskey has been consumed, one of them stands up and walks out of the room. The other tries to guess who left.    *Please, no Tennessee whiskey. 

I'm a big-tent person, you know. Live and let live, I always say. Milk of human kindness by the quart in every vein. No accounting for tastes, so let people enjoy their innocent pleasures. Life's too short, &c., &c.  But my patience is sorely tried by an article at Westword in which one Jenn Wohletz, whom I take, from her vulgar but uninventive prose and untutored taste in drink, to be a young person, disparages the old-fashioned and the martini.  The old-fashioned is a drink for Old People, she says, and it's a pain for the bartender to make, and "when anyone under the age of 65 orders one, they're only doing it to look cool and impress people.

The cops surely picked the wrong place to drink after work -- their chief's favorite morning hangout, Miss Shirley's, especially since they were in partial police uniform. But here's the other question this raises -- what were they drinking? The upscale eatery with locations in Roland Park and at the Inner Harbor doesn't have beer on the menu. Now, cops aren't limited to beer, but still, some of these drinks come with umbrellas. The “Wet your whistle” page offers the $5.99 Miss Mimosa - the classic champagne and fresh-squeezed orange juice, garnished with pulp, and a $7.99 Spicy Shirely, a Bloody Mary with pickled okra, Jalapenos and lump crab.

SOME students returning to college campuses this fall will want to drink alcoholic beverages. Unless they're 21 years old, that's illegal, at my college or at any other college in the country. Nevertheless, underage students will drink as they have for hundreds of years.In light of this fact, we should stop pretending that more rules and regulations will stop them. Allow me to suggest a more radical proposal: colleges should open on-campus pubs where students can drink safely.In 1994, Columbia University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse produced a study on substance abuse at colleges and universities and reported that 42 percent of college students binge drink, and that 33 percent of students drink to get drunk.

Baltimore police conceded on Tuesday that officers inappropriately allowed hundreds of St. Patrick's Dayrevelers to turn Canton's public square into an unsanctioned outdoor beer garden, but authorities also pleaded for people to party responsibly. The recriminations came after residents of the Southeast Baltimore community and bar district endured a day and night of nonstop partying at O'Donnell Square that led to vandalism, public urination and rowdy behavior likened to a frat house.

EMMITSBURG - Four Mount St. Mary's College students were hospitalized over the weekend with symptoms of alcohol poisoning, college officials said yesterday. The students - whose names and ages were not divulged - were taken Saturday night from campus dormitories to hospitals in Frederick and Gettysburg, Pa., said college spokesman Duffy Ross. He said college officials were investigating where the students had been drinking. On Saturday night, the college held its Christmas dance, a longstanding tradition at the 1,400-student Catholic school in Emmitsburg.

It's no secret that Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld IIIis a frequent diner at Miss Shirley's, a breakfast, brunch and lunch spot with locations in Roland Park and at the Inner Harbor. He's partial to the omelet margharita. So it should be no surprise that the soon-to-be retiring chief headed for the Pratt Street bistro Wednesday morning to catch a quick breakfast. There, according to a police source, he stumbled on two city officers drinking alcohol. They had just come off the midnight shift and were off duty, but were either dressed in partial uniform or had their guns and badges displayed, said the police source and another person affiliated with law enforcement who is familiar with the incident.

The Thirsty Turtle bar has been open for three years, but that's long enough to develop a reputation and following among University of Maryland students. The Turtle, as students call it, is known for its packed dance floor, loud music, sticky floors, cheap drinks and, as the bar has been charged, often lax carding at the door. "They call it the freshman bar," said Brian Hearn, 21, a senior communications major. "It was a joke getting in there. I guess it still is. " Last week, police were called to a fight-turned-stabbing on U.S. 1, involving five intoxicated men who had been kicked out of the College Park bar. Three of the victims were underage UM students.

Using zoning laws to limit alcohol outlet density won't stop the heaviest drinkers from consuming alcoholic beverages ("Government should use zoning to limit liquor stores, Hopkins researchers say," April 11). Such a solution oversimplifies the problem of alcohol abuse. Just compare Maryland and Pennsylvania. Despite its smaller population, Maryland's private control of alcohol sales means it has roughly 1.5 times as many alcohol retail outlets as government-controlled Pennsylvania.

Maryland is hosting the fifth annual Drink Local Wine conference, the main annual event of Drink Local Wine, an organization dedicated to increasing awareness and appreciation of American wine. The Drink Local Wine Confererce is Saturday at the Tremont Suites Hotel & Grand Historic Venue. Conference activities include seminars, tastings and guest speakers like Jerry Pellegrino, executive chef at Waterfront Kitchen, and Al Spoler, host of WYPR's Cellar Notes. The conference's grand fiinale is the Grand Tasting & Twitter Taste-Off at Oriole Park at Camden Yards . The brainchild of Washington Post wine columnist Dave McIntyre and wine blogger Jeff Siegel (the Wine Curmudgeon)

As a Foreign Service family who lived for six years in Central America, where no soda was allowed on our children's school campus, we were very surprised to discover that the highly rated Howard County schools still sell soda in vending machines. Soft drinks contribute nothing nutritionally, but can do a lot of damage to our children's health. Yet, schools selling soft drinks send a clear message that these are okay to consume. As a parent who discourages my children from drinking soft drinks, having a soda machine at school undermines my efforts as well, making our jobs as parents that much harder.

Dayvon Green was impaired by alcohol when he pulled a handgun out of his waistband in front of his College Park home early on a February morning and shot roommate Stephen Rane to death, according to autopsy reports released Thursday. Green, a graduate student at the University of Maryland, also wounded roommate Neal Oa before putting the gun to the back of his head, behind his right ear, and pulling the trigger, according to the reports. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner released the reports on Rane and Green after Prince George's County police and prosecutors confirmed that they had closed their investigation into the killings that shook the state's flagship university and led officials to direct more money toward mental health services for students.

Unlike those of us who merely sip wine and try to appreciate it, Paul Lukacs has channeled his passion for the drink into a second career, one in which he's increasingly recognized as one of this country's most authoritative voices on the topic. Lukacs' most recent book, "Inventing Wine," was just nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. If he wins, it would be his second time earning the prize sometimes referred to as the food world's Oscar. When he's not writing books, reviewing wine or traveling the country as a wine judge, Lukacs can be found at Loyola University Maryland, where the 57-year-old is an English professor and director of the school's Center for the Humanities.

Anne Arundel police on Monday reported breaking up an underage drinking party at a Severna Park residence, where nearly two dozen juveniles were charged, including one that police said fell out of a second story window as he attempted to avoid detection. It marked the third time in four months that police had been called to the residence on the 100 block of Southway Drive in Severna Park, police said. The latest incident occurred on Saturday night at around 9 p.m., when officers said that upon arrival they saw juveniles leaving the residence with beer cans in hand.

A popular bar on Main Street in Ellicott City that is undergoing renovation and upgrading food offerings in hopes of attracting new customers was fined $250 by the Howard County Alcoholic Beverage Hearing Board for an underage-drinking incident. Jane Johnson and Marsha Greenfield, licensees for the Judge's Bench, agreed to a statement of facts concerning an incident May 25 in which county police Detective Martin Johnson found three young women in the bar who admitted they were 20 years old and had fake driver's licenses.

A parent, a police officer and a student offered advice on curbing teen-age drinking at a recent Hammond High School PTSA meeting."Parents need to know that their feelings to protect their children are correct and they should be less fearful of monitoring their activities," said Annette Essey, a member of the PTSA who spoke at the school's "Alcohol is a Drug, Too" program.The mother of two Hammond students, Mrs. Essey said, "Parents are naive and often in a state of denial when it comes to their children's activities outside the home, especially when it comes to alcohol use."

In its aim and ambition, Moonshine Tavern is nothing like the Gin Mill, the cozy Canton bar and restaurant it replaced after nearly 16 years of service. Like many of the nearby bars on Boston Street, the Gin Mill was more of a casual place for dinner and drinks than a hot spot. I talked to Moonshine Tavern co-owner Shanna Cooper in January, and it was clear that she and partner Jacob Millisock hoped to make Gin Mill a distant memory. "We're not looking to be a hole-in-the-wall bar," Cooper said.

The beverage industry is claiming victory after a New York City judge on Monday overturned a ban on super-size sodas and sugary drinks Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had championed as a way to combat obesity among residents. But the battle is hardly over. Mr. Bloomberg, whose campaign against sales of such drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces became one of the signature public health initiatives of his administration, has garnered worldwide attention for his efforts and in the process amplified the conversation about the link between sweetened drinks and obesity that likely will go on long after he leaves office at the end of this year.