According to the Daily Beast, Seattle ranked as America's 19th drunkest city for 2011, with just over 14 drinks consumed on average per (legal) resident every month, which pans out to a little over three drinks a week, which is technically nothing. I guess this is good news—that we're not drunker, I mean. Although glancing about the Stranger offices, which feature more visible booze bottles than employees at the moment, I'd say we're doing more than our part to bolster Seattle's reputation as a town of middling drunks.

Meanwhile, Boston reigned as 2011's drunkest city, according to the Beast's (unexplained) drunky formula. And here's a sobering wet blanket one Boston brain trauma doc throws on the dubious prize:

Scientifically conducted studies indicate alcohol is involved in a least a fifth of motor vehicle accident brain injuries. By contrast, my ten-minute personal reflection indicates Boston's drug of choice is involved in at least three quarters of crashes generating a traumatic brain injury severe enough for the rehabilitation hospital. One of my patients eventually emerged from the vegetative state he was in after a meaningless drunken fight. (While the clinical anecdotes here bear some resemblances to the real cases, I've altered many details to further obscure identification.)

The clinical examples he goes on to cite are enough to make me rethink that after-lunch body shot I had scheduled with Mudede.