NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED: …“It’s pretty stressful here during the week,” explained the guy with the blue concoction in response to my uneasy glances. “So everyone tends to go pretty hard on the weekends.”
I hadn’t known it at the time, but this was my first introduction to the aspirational “blackout.” That is, intentionally drinking with the goal of submersing yourself in so much alcohol that you can’t remember what happened and the only vestiges that remain from the night before are the videos on your friends’ phones.
I attended that college for one year before transferring to the University of North Carolina. During that time I never got “blackout,” but I was a frequent observer of it. I’m not naïve; I know that drinking is part of the college experience, you hang out with some friends, you party too hard and sometimes you pass out. But what I saw was something different.
Times to start drinking were scheduled on Fridays and Saturdays, liquor runs were arranged with someone who was of age. “Pregaming” festivities were set up in various rooms. These festivities included games like king’s cup, in which losers have to drink, and power hour, where you have to drink a certain amount in a specific period of time. Groups then moved to other dorms, and more games were played with more people, and then to on-campus apartments with even more people. And finally, they descended on the frat houses where trash cans filled with p.j., or party juice, also known as pink panty droppers, were at the ready. The game favored at the frat parties was cuff and chug, here you are handcuffed to a partner until the two of you finish a fifth of alcohol. For the supercompetitive, Sharpie pens were used to tally the number of drinks on your arm, establishing a ratio of drinks to the time it takes to black out — a high ratio was a source of pride among the guys… (more)
EDITOR: Two college students. One drinks alcoholic beverages on weekends. Another smokes joints. Which do you think parents should worry about?
