Thursday, August 22, 2013

Thirsty Thursdays are about to resume

A faculty member reports to me that a significant percentage of Emergency Room patients at St. Elizabeth's Hospital on Thursday nights come from a nearby college and arrive with a diagnosis of alcohol poisoning.

I was not aware of this cultural phenomenon in The Heights.  But it is has been place for some time, as this article summarizes:

Thursday is the new Friday for college students. On most campuses, early morning classes don’t exist on Fridays, so why not start the weekend even earlier? It’s hard to say no to booze, brews and a good time.

And aided and abetted by local pubs with ad leaders like this: "Thursdays have become one of Boston’s best nights for college students and young professionals!!"

On a related topic, the New York Times reports:

Five beer brands were consumed most often by people who ended up in the emergency room. They were Budweiser, Steel Reserve, Colt 45, Bud Ice and Bud Light.

My unscientific survey in our neighorhood near this college supports this finding, with a clear preference for the Budweiser products, as shown by the types of empty cans found on the streets and near the transit stations the morning after.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I first became aware of the Thursday phenomenon when my daughter went to college. Geez, when I was in school all the science majors had MWF 8 o'clocks. What's next, no classes after Tuesdays?

nonlocal

Paul V said...

"'Tis Wisdom't earthly fane..." except on Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, Sundays before holidays...

When I was there, the college itself sponsored a Thursday night pub right on campus. And Bud Light was the beer of choice then, too.

jkm30309 said...

You may want to read this from Aaron Carroll at Incidental Economist about that NYT story.

http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/argh-argh-argh-argh-reporting-science-isnt-that-hard/