Binge drink ritual upsets actor Paul Newman

[emad]

From BBC News:
<snip>

Veteran actor Paul Newman has complained to Princeton University over a day named after him in which students are encouraged to binge drink.

Newman's Day, which is held annually on 24 April, sees students attempt to drink 24 beers in as many hours.

In a letter sent to the university, Newman's lawyer said the actor was "disturbed" by the use of his name in conjunction with the event.

"He would like to bring an end to this tradition," the letter said. The ritual has been named after the 79-year-old actor in reference to a quote he is alleged to have said: "24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not."
<snip>

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3652179.stm

[trumad]

1. Come on Paul

with all the maddness in the world right now, a binge drunk is a great escape.... No pun since that was McQueen....

[freetobegay]

2. I am sure the school does not condone this.

Meaning it's not an official event. This is one reason lawyers get a bad name & so they should.

If Newman had not said this we would not be having this discussion now.

[sir_captain]

20. Yeah, it's not

the university has been trying to get rid of it for years

[AngryAmish]

3. What a nerd

[deadeye]

4. I believe he lost a son to drug / alcohol overdose

maybe he is just trying to save a life

[brook]

8. You are correct.

And soon after, Paul started the Scott Newman Foundation which works with drug and alcohol addictions. The loss of his only son was devastating to him. It's absurd to criticize him for not wanting to be linked to a crash course in binge drinking.

[FunBobbyMucha]

5. Hey, I think Paul's a genuine cool soul

so he doesn't want to be associated with young people killing brain cells. Would you really respect him more if he were encouraging them? Give the guy a break, if for no other reason than the money he's raised with his foods over the years, all to good causes. A true benefactor with concern for others. He could kick Charlton Heston's ass any day.

Ain't a man alive can eat 50 eggs.

[emad]

9. His pasta sauces are crap and his pizzas taste like corrugated

loo paper.

[kmla]

17. Well... Don't buy them.

But at least the profits from the the crappy pasta sauce and the pizzas that taste like corrugated loo paper are donated to charity.

:eyes:

[Elidor]

11. Mah boy Luke can eat 50 eggs!

[mobuto]

18. I can eat 50 eggs.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

[Loonman]

6. Okay, Paul

Now go sell some lemonade and salad dressing.

[SoCalDem]

7. I like Paul, BUT...

I am very weary of "older people" (myself included) who actually think that they can prevent" young folks from making their own mistakes..

People only learn when they screw up..No one learns when someone older had their "fun" and then tells the younger ones.."Don't do what I did"..

[jmowreader]

15. I tell 'em that...

because I want them to have more fun than I did. Don't go to the party then just sit there and drink--go to the party and dance, be merry and drink.

[tarheel]

10. You know I read this story

in the newspaper this morning and there is a line in the article that made me believe that maybe it was not as bad some are making it out to be.


Newman's Day, which is held annually on 24 April, sees students attempt to drink 24 beers in as many hours.


If I remember correctly, the average human body can process approximately 1 oz. of alcohol per hour and the average 12 oz. can of beer contains approximately 1 oz. of alcohol. So, it seems to me that this is not even a very good way to get drunk or to even engage in "binge drinking".

I don't believe I could get very much of an alcohol buzz going at that rate. I remember in my binging days, going through several more beers per hour than that.

Seems to me that this is more of a risk of sleep deprivation than anything else. I can, however, see that Mr. Newman does not like his name being associated with this tradition, but, once a movie is filmed and released to the public, the content of that movie becomes public domain and it seems this is where the student got their name for the event. Unfortunately, Mr. Newman should have thought about his aversions to binge drinking when he agreed to recite that particular line in a movie, which in a way endorsed this kind of behavior.

[Exultant Democracy]

16. That is exactly what I thought.

If they are only drinking one beer and hour it is probably the most sober day of the year for them.

[truthspeaker]

12. I'm with Paul. The binge drinking culture really disturbs me

I like to drink socially, and sometimes I like to get pretty buzzed. But there seems to be a trend now to get totally falling-down vomiting hammered which I think is dangerous.

[indigo32]

13. Paul has class

People can party if they want but if he doesn't want his name associated with it, then he should say so.

[jmowreader]

14. A case of beer in 24 hours is not a big problem

I don't get how this ritual works. I got the general gist--sometime today you have to buy a case of beer and, between 0001L and 2359L tomorrow, you have to convert the whole thing to urine.

But do you have to space 'em out so it's one every hour, which means someone has to wake you up every hour on the hour to drink (readers of The Road to Wellville will see Newman's Day's similarity to the Milk Diet, where you drank four ounces of milk every fifteen minutes while awake and were awakened every hour on the hour for another four-ounce feeding all night), or can you just start drinking when you get up so long as you drink the whole case before midnight?

I mean, there are serious questions here as to the conduct of this event! If you do the one-an-hour thing, and probably half the frats do it that way, you've got a lot of guys running around with big black circles under their eyes--half of whom will wear them as a badge of honor, the other half of whom will be asking their girlfriends, "can you do something about these? I look like shit." However, those guys won't be too drunk. The frats who will start drinking when they get up will be seriously plastered, meaning the C-stores will be out of aspirin on Sunday morning, but they'll get enough sleep.

These are college students, though, and not professional drinkers, so it's no great stain on their reputations if they can only drink 22 or 23 beers before midnight. And there's always next year. Good thing this holiday is on Saturday this year--or do they do a "Newman's Day (observed)" thing like the government does with Independence Day?

Of course, the one frat house that's full of old sailors, Marines and MI guys (you'll know it by the airfield fire extinguisher sitting by the front door with a sign on it that reads "if anyone cuts himself while shaving, push this into the bathroom") will have breakfast, drink one six-pack before noon, have lunch over a couple of beers, drink the rest of that six-pack before dinner, have three or four beers over dinner, drink the rest of the case between 1900 and 2130, then get dressed to go out drinking.

All kidding aside, I wish I'd have known about this between 1986 and 1992. This sounds like a fantastic theme for a unit party.

[sir_captain]

19. The real trick

is that normally, the students are supposed to go to class while doing it, and most Princeton undergrads don't have classes on Fridays, so there was talk about doing it on thursday. I don't know if it happened or not...