The online version Ask Men magazine does a weekly top 10 list on a wide variety of subjects, such as “Chill Out Movies” and “Father-Daughter Activities.” This week the list is the Top 10 “Legendary Drinkers.” It’s an interesting list and they at least explain why they chose each person.
Here’s who made the list.
- John Barrymore
- Hank Williams
- Andre the Giant
- Dylan Thomas
- Winston Churchill
- Ernest Hemingway
- Richard Harris
- Edgar Allen Poe
- Benjamin Franklin
- Dean Martin
- Honorable Mention: Judy Garland
It’s a fine list and I don’t really want to quibble with it too much. Dylan Thomas, a great poet, is responsible for one of my favorite quotes. “An alcoholic is someone you don’t like who drinks just as much as you do.” But I do think there are some glaring omissions. Chief among them has to be “W.C. Fields.” But other famous drunks that come to mind are Charles Bukowski, Charles McCabe, Dorothy Parker and Hunter Thompson.
Who would you put on the list?
Who would I add to the list?
Glaring omissions:
Mark Twain
Richard Burton
Frank Sinatra
…and just for fun:
Billy Martin
Dylan Thomas’s reputation as a drinker has been much exaggerated – the infamous “17 whiskies” binge almost certainly never happened, and his drink of choice in British pubs seems to have been pints of mild-and-bitter.
Here are a few more Great British Drinkers:
Wallace Milroy (famed whisky expert – lunchtime tipple of choice, a pint of Lagavulin)
Eric Clapton (reformed now, but out of it for most of the time he was married to Patti Boyd)
Jeffrey Barnard (journalist and racing tipster – had a West End play written about his exploits, Jeffrey Barnard is Unwell, with another great drinker, Peter O’Toole, playing the part of Barnard).
Herbert Asquith, British Prime Minister in the early years of the First World War,, nicknamed “Squiffy”.
James Boswell, Samuel Johnson’s biographer, and the epitome of the hard-drinking 18th century gentleman
George Brown, 1960s politician, whose exploits in public led to the invention of the euphemism “tired and emotional”
Kingsley Amis, author and father of the now much more famous Martin
and a couple more Irish ones
Brendan Behan
George Best (star soccer player who carried on drinking AFTER a liver transplant)
And what about history’s greatest drunk, Alexander?
And the Bible’s most famous drunk, Noah? (Genesis 9:21, IIRC) Legendary indeed …
Robert Burns, the great bard of Scotland. Here’s the man whose words you sing when you raise that glass of champagne and toast the new year with Auld Lang Syne. He made poetry out of barley (The Rig’s o’ Barley) and knew his way around Scotch whisky. A list of legendary drinkers without a Scotsman? Here’s what Burns might say:
O thou, my muse! good auld Scotch drink!
Whether thro’ wimplin worms thou jink,
Or, richly brown, ream owre the brink,
In glorious foam,
Inspire me, till I lisp an’ wink,
To sing thy name!
Let husky wheat the vales adorn,
An’ oats set up their bearded horn,
An’ peas and beans, at e’en or morn,
Dear is to me John Barleycorn,
Thou king o’ grain!
Now there’s a legendary drinker!