And a bonus myth-of-the-month:
“Being Elvis comes with risks…. As a teenager, Sean began drinking and smoking pot.”
So wrote Bo Emerson, in “Requiem for a blues player” in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in explaining why Sean Costello, a “child genius who grew into a mature artist” and whose “legacy lives on,” overdosed in 2008. No, Mr. Emerson, having the ability and notoriety of an Elvis Presley doesn’t carry risks; having alcoholic genes does. On tour, Costello could be a stay-up-all-night party animal. He’d been in rehab at least once. He was described as manic, staying up for three or four days. But mania rarely occurs without benefit of external injections of chemicals; he always did drugs. The toxicology report found his brain ...
Another exhibitionist, another addict.
Stories from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“Vroom: It wasn’t such a big deal that Karen Marie Dilworth, 50, was having sex with the motorcycle in her Ormond Beach, Fla., garage. The problem was, the garage door was open, and the young boy outside, and various other neighbors, couldn’t help but to notice. Dilworth, who admitted to police she had been drinking, was arrested and charged with ‘lewd/lascivious exhibition by a person over 18 on a person under 16.’ She denied having sex with the motorcycle. Then what was she doing in the garage? Smoking, she said. (RC/Daytona Beach News-Journal) ...Smoking, ‘smoking afterward’ — big difference.”
It’s not that drinking “loosens inhibitions” so much as “impels one to ...
Drunk math teacher. At least she’ll understand .205 BAL.
And, because we’ve missed so many issues this year and, well, because this one’s too good to pass up, a BONUS alcoholic Antic-of-the-Month:
“Calculate the Odds of this Catching up with Her: A student at Poston Butte High School in San Tan Valley, Ariz., complained a math teacher was drunk in her classroom. The principal and school police officer investigated, and Kathleen Jardine, 57, allegedly admitted she had been drinking the night before, that morning, and during lunch at school; her blood alcohol measured .205 percent, the Pinal County sheriff’s office reported. A half-empty, 750 ml bottle of vodka was found in her purse, along with an empty wine bottle. The night before, Jardine was arrested for drunk driving on her ...
What would you do…if you want a pizza at 11:40 pm on a Sunday, don’t have any money to buy one—and you have alcoholic biochemistry? (TAR Lite #37)
Would you:
1. Borrow some money and go find an open pizza shop?
2. Ask a friend to go pick up a pizza for you?
3. Instead, scrounge up something in your kitchen?
4. Go to Papa John's and demand free pizza and, when an employee says "no," assault him, steal a few pies and run off?
Congratulations if you selected # 4, which is what Michael Joseph Runko, 28, did after his pizza munchies took possession of him. Upon leaving the shop, he encountered a delivery man from whom he demanded money. When this victim refused, Runko struck him and threw a brick at his delivery vehicle. He spat and swung at arresting troopers, who committed him to the local county prison. He was ...
What would you do…if you struck a 5 year-old boy with your car—and you have alcoholic biochemistry? (TAR Lite # 36)
Would you:
1. Stop your car and immediately call for help?
2. Stop your car, get out and ascertain the boy's injuries, see if you can do anything by way of aid and comfort and then call for help?
3. Stop your car and, seeing a witness drive up and a neighbor run out of his home to ascertain what the sound of skidding tires was all about, ask them for help?
4. Try to drive away, but when a witness blocks your car, run off and crawl into a nearby hole, covering yourself with dirt?
Congratulations if you picked # 4, which is what Marsha Humi Perry, 36, did after a witness blocked her from fleeing the scene in her car. She came ...
What would you do…if your adult kids confront you for stealing two cans of beer from their front porch cooler without asking—and you have alcoholic biochemistry? (TAR Lite #35)
Would you:
1. Apologize?
2. Go buy a six-pack for the kids to make it up to them?
3. Replace the two beers and promise the kids you'll never again take their beer without asking?
4. Buy a couple of beers to replace the stolen ones, but then try to tear down the kids' front door with a pickax when they lock themselves in their home after refusing to talk to you?
Congratulations is you selected # 4, which is what Elvis Rhodes, 55, did. When his son, Christopher, 28, refused to open the door because he was afraid of dad due to prior violence (surprise!), Elvis grabbed a pickax and tried to chop through the front door. Christopher grabbed a shotgun and fired ...
What would you do…if you wanted a drink at a bar but the bartender refused to serve you—and you have alcoholic biochemistry (TAR Lite # 34)
Would you...
1. Walk home and drink there?
2. Realize you had enough to drink, sit down and ask for a coke?
3. Realize you have a "drinking problem" and head to an AA meeting?
4. Get angry and throw chairs, bar stools and glasses at customers and, when officers arrive, threaten to kidnap and behead an American?
Congratulations if you selected # 4, which is exactly what Failal Albagdadi, 54, and Ahmed Hindi, 30, did when the bartender refused to serve them. Just a month earlier, Albagdadi was arrested on charges of DUI. Why is this prior arrest not surprising?
The addiction-aware know that whenever we shake our heads and ask, "What was he thinking?" and we connect the behaviors to heavy drinking, we diagnose ...
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What would you do…if you have to drive a group of wet kids home from a nearby public pool—and you have alcoholic biochemistry (TAR Lite # 33)
Would you...
1. Dry them off and put towels on the seats before letting them in the car?
2. Ask the pool attendant for some towels to dry them off first?
3. Wait until the kids were air/sun-dried before letting them get in the car?
4. Make the kids ride on the hood and trunk of the car, sparing the inside?
Congratulations if you selected # 4, which is exactly what Kisha Young, 39, did with the six youngsters, ages 8 to 14. After Young took a corner too fast, they were all flung onto the road. She was so hammered she didn’t even realize the kids weren’t on the car until she drove another block, when she turned around, panicked. ...
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Intelligence services completely missed the boat, enabling an alcoholic to trigger a war, and now a quagmire in Iraq..
Iraq: How An Alcoholic Triggered a War, Which Led to a Quagmire
Whether alcoholics are directly or indirectly responsible for catastrophes, the lies they tell can lead to many forms of tragedy, especially when politics is involved. The 2003 Iraq war and current ISIS disaster in Iraq is a classic example of a series of catastrophic events initiated indirectly by one alcoholic.
Excluding natural causes, my work indicates that alcohol and other-drug addicts are responsible for some 80% of human misery. Considering that only 10% of the population is afflicted with substance addiction, the disease affects others way out of proportion to its prevalence. These problems include everything from auto accidents and domestic violence to war and genocide.
Confirming this 80% figure is ...
Addiction takes an odd but horrific form in Elliot Rodger. Fueled by Xanax, he writes a manifesto and slaughters six, wounds 13 and kills himself.
Elliot Rodger, 22, who slaughtered six and wounded 13 before killing himself in a Xanax-fueled bloodbath on the streets of Goleta, near the University of California at Santa Barbara. Although reportedly diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (a form of autism), he exhibited numerous signs of psychotropic drug addiction, albeit taking an odd form; by his own admission, he was a virgin and, therefore, didn’t engage in one of the most time-honored ways of wielding power over others: serial Don Juanism. On the other hand, since those with AS lack social skills and do not understand non-verbal cues, this isn’t entirely surprising. His 137-page manifesto exhibits extreme narcissism, twisted fantasies, weird obsessions, rage and confabulated thinking. In classic alcoholic fashion, he blames ...
One out of 40 comments identifies addiction where, to us, it’s obvious. The case of U.S. Olympic gold medalist soccer player Hope Solo.
Most of the people posting comments on a US Weekly report about U.S. Olympic gold medalist soccer player Hope Solo’s arrest on charges of domestic violence. Solo, 32, had well known anger management issues. While the odds of addiction ascribed to domestic violence are about as close to 100% as we can get, it’s remotely possible it could be ascribed to instability. Her father, a Viet Nam War veteran, was in and out of her life as a child and teenager, reconnecting with her only during her college years until his sudden death when she was 25. But, odds are odds: the best explanation for leaving her sister and nephew with “visible injuries” during what one cop called a “big ...
“My Teen Life” clearly attracts addicts. Will they intervene?
Metal Flowers Media, which is seeking to cast teenagers ages 13 to 18 who like to “make their own rules and party like a rock star” in a series titled My Teen Life. Kristi Russell, president of the casting company, told AP “this series does not intend to exploit troubled teens, nor glamorize their lifestyle. In fact, the intent is quite the opposite.” They intend to cast teenage alcohol and other-drug addicts; time will tell if the comparison Russell drew with the TV show Intervention, in which addicts are confronted by loved ones and encouraged to seek treatment, is apt.
7 DUIs and still enabled; wife almost murdered by her husband, and she still enables. The judge, though, doesn’t.
Enablers of the month:
An unnamed judge, sentencing businessman Shaun Goodman, 42, to a year of work release, not jail, and another judge, modifying Goodman’s conditions of release so he could fly from Olympia, WA to New Jersey to watch the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl. Goodman pleaded guilty to DUI and felony eluding in connection with a drunken chase at speeds reported by his terrified passenger, Henry Griffin, in excess of 100 mph through downtown Olympia. Goodman’s attorney, Paul Strophy, noted that Goodman owns a business and “employs individuals who rely on him to show up for work in order to make sure the business runs smoothly.” First, Goodman won’t show up after he kills ...
Felix Dennis, RIP: billionaire addict. They take risks the rest of us shy away from and sometimes that risk-taking works.
Felix Dennis, dead of throat cancer at 67. Dennis was a British publisher who pioneered computer and hobbyist magazine publishing in the United Kingdom, and more recently published Maxim and The Week. The addictionologist in us would suggest his addiction caused him to take risks others wouldn’t and, in doing so successfully, become immensely wealthy (Dennis’ estimated worth at death: nearly $1.3 billion). He undoubtedly was a full-on addict. By his own admission, he blew $100 million in one decade on drugs, drink and women and had 14 mistresses on his personal payroll.
Every addict has their stories of craziness or pure dumb luck. In 1970, Dennis and two other editors invited twenty 14- to 18-year-old children to “guest” edit an ...
A brief review of Curveball as an adjunct to the Top Story. Well worth the read.
Curveball: Spies, Lies, and the Con Man who Caused a War, by Bob Drogin, is well worth reading by those who want to learn the details of the Curveball story recounted above in the Top Story. While complex because of the characters it’s well written and has a great index which, used properly, can help to reduce confusion. The index even references alcohol consumption under “Curveball.” While the author doesn’t explicitly state that Curveball was an alcoholic, he could have omitted the heavy drinking completely—kudos to Drogin for even mentioning it. My only complaint is one I have with nearly every biography or history: the story doesn’t begin with, “Curveball was an alcoholic. Hence, the insanity of everything that came ...