more life on the Central Coast

[ritaxis]

So binge drinking is the cause of the day. They've introduced a bunch of measures to cut down on binge drinking at the University: draconian anti-partying laws on the part of the city (kids get one warning and the next loud partyu they have they are fined some amount and their landlord is required to evict them) and a campaign on campus to talk students into "partying small," which means -- pressure against assembling in large groups.

Binge drinking among college students, is of course, a bad thing, and is, of course, a traditional problem in some schools, and a growing problem in other schools . . .

Only, according to the numbers, not UCSC.

So . . . what is this all about?


On other fronts, the neighborhood in Salinas which was partially evacuated due to a foul-smelling substance that gave them headaches and made them ill was not victim to methyl bromide escape from the strawberry field across the street. Nope, it was another chemical, which I heard as "chlorotryptin," and which was identified as being, besides an omnicide (my word! I made it up!) squirted under plastic to sterilize fields before the berry plants are put in, a component in tear gas. But it can't be called that: Google says there is no such thing and suggests "cholorotryptamine," which gives many manby results but nothing that tells me whether it's the right thing.

And still further fronts . . . general hurricane news has begun to be pushed aside by dog reunion stories. You know -- local shelters reconnect hurricane refugees and their dogs.

I love my dog, but there's something corrupt about this.

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with occasional binge drinking, as long as there's no driving involved? I think it's one of those things students do, and one of the things people do when they haven't been allowed alcohol and then suddenly are. It isn't the sort of thing that leads to alcoholism. I can't think what the problem is, other than the immediate annoyance for the neighbours, best dealt with as a noise nuisance. These measures look to me like they're either covering something or are intended as publicity for your proactively go-getting legislators.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Binge drinking is defined in the States as the dangerous kind, where kids occasionally die from alcohol poisoning and frequentlydrink enough to become ill or to be a physical danger to themselkv and others. Unfortunately it also seems to be defined as five beers at a sitting, which seems to me to be entirely too inclusive.

Personally, I blame it on frat culture, not alcohol, and I am disgusted that frats are allowed to exist at UCSC, which used to be a fraternity-free school.

(but aside from the well-publicized actions of one boozy frat, which killed and ate a college mascot on national television, and was subsequently banned, we don't have the fraternity-related problems of soime schoolks either)