Binge Cities USA—and the Local Angle

Here's a list of the "binge-drinking" rates of 120 urban areas, as compiled by the American Journal of Public Health. (A binge is defined as having five or more drinks in a single bout of boozing.) San Antonio tops the list, with 23.9 percent of residents saying they binge; the national median is 14.5 percent. See where your hometown ranks and glow with pride (or shame)!

And here's a story about that list from the Cinncinati Enquirer. The story is less interesting for any information it conveys than for how it illustrates the passive-aggresion endemic to smaller-city newspapers when it comes to playing the local angle on a national story.

"Fewer here binge drink than in U.S.," crows the headline. But hey, Queen City lushes rule the region: "The binge-drinking rate in Greater Cincinnati, which includes Northern Kentucky and parts of Indiana, is slightly higher than rates in Cleveland, Columbus, Lexington and Louisville."

The study, which is based on surveys conducted by the Centers for Disease Control between 1997 and 1999--a period when all of America was drunk on the present and the future, if hazy memory serves--says that variation in rates is a combination of (duh) metro area age rates and gender splits, access to alcohol, religious beliefs, and pricing.