Aaah. Sweet October nearly gone. Oktoberfest dusk is nigh. The kegs of San Miguel downed and boxes of paracetamol and ibuprofen chewed the mornings-after. And perhaps the occasional shrieks of horror from waking up in some other person’s bedroom. Or some toilet cubicle.

I never get to enjoy Oktoberfests. For one, I never was a big fan of beer or liquor in general. While friends were chugging fermented malt and hops and gin blossoms, and whatnot down their throats, I was the one sipping iced tea. I always have volunteered to be the designated driver mainly because I knew I’d rather have tea in my bladder than some 90 proof vodka eat my liver out.

Well, not to be hypocritical I got drunk twice or so but at least I only got to be piss-headed with friends not in public. I just don’t get the point of throwing up mixes of alcohol and digestive fluids for everyone to see. And hurled puke (pronounced “pyook” not the Tagalog for…) is not a pretty sight.

In any case, I am just amazed of how booze gets so. I drive to work with 107.5 FM on the car stereo’s display (since everything is digital nowadays, “dial” has become obsolete). And every morning of every weekday this October, the San Miguel Oktoberfest jingle never missed its morning slot, wooing all drinkers to binge on sisig, San Miguel and rock music. Advertising works in blatant yet amazing ways, influencing people like zombies conjured by Imhotep himself. Last I heard, hordes really rampaged the San Mig Oktoberfest gigs and golden brew poured forth.

Oh well. I have always wondered what drew people to be part of an orgiastic drink binge ritual year after year. It’s not that I have anything against drinking. Personally, I do not care if people decide to burn their liver, as long as I don’t get ran down or hit by DUI bastards, fine by me. It’s just perhaps the culture of getting piss drunk that weirds me out.

Much like my rambling about coffee, what’s with beer? Is this yet another case of “Alcohol influence, exploited by breweries everywhere”? It is as if it has reached sanctified proportions and, amazingly, the great coincidence of beer named after the archangel. I also wonder if we are really a nation of drunkards. Note that San Miguel Corporation is also the nation’s number one corporate entity.

“One man’s medicine, the other’s poison.” One man’s piss, the other man’s beer. Hehe. Come to think of it from afar, a bottle of piss can be mistaken as San Miguel Light. Pranks anyone?

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