I stumbled upon this list of teetotalers on Wikipedia.
Clearly I'm not famous enough to be on the list. But that's okay, George Hrab isn't on there either, and he's more famous than me.
It seems Geo and I are in good company on that list: Bruce Lee, Penn & Teller, Kim Cattrall (Lt. Valeris from Star Trek VI), Isaac Asimov and Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts (who may have been acquainted with my ancestor, Edward "Blackbeard" Teach).
Of course there are some less-than-impressive names on that list as well. But I won't talk about those.
My point is that there appear to be some interesting, intelligent and respectable people who have made similar lifestyle choices to my own. It's comforting to know that, since I am often accosted by drinkers who don't understand or respect that choice.
I wonder how often Warren Buffett gets hassled about it.
I think the best way to handle the question of "why don't you drink?" is to say that it's because of my religious beliefs. That ends 80% of inquiry but if he/she persists in asking which religion I follow, I reply that I'm an atheist.
ReplyDeleteThat should extract a laugh, if it does not then believe me, there is no answer on this planet that will satisfy that individual. And I then have to spend a lot of time explaining what the joke meant.
Haha... that's a good suggestion. I'll try that next time.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I tried it... it didn't work very well. Perhaps it was just the execution. I'll try it again next time with a little more flair and see what happens.
ReplyDelete