I rarely get drunk anymore. I can’t remember the last time I did. Still, I like to drink. A cocktail at 5:30. Two glasses of wine at dinner. And a Cognac with my cigar afterwards. But, in an effort to lose 25+ pounds to “make weight” at a recent Jiu Jitsu competition, I devised a diet that consisted of depriving myself each day of one of three enjoyments: cigars, carbs, or alcohol.

In terms of pounds lost, I would attribute none of it to giving up cigar smoking, since I managed to do that on only a single occasion. As to carbs and alcohol, I found that I could give up either one with the same moderate amount of effort. But giving up the drink was more effective because (and this was a surprise to me) I was consuming nearly 1,000 calories of alcohol a day! (Pre-prandial cocktail: 250 calories. Wine at dinner: 450 calories. Post-prandial Cognac: 300 calories.)

What I’ve decided: (1) Cigars seem to be good for me as a pleasure and a stimulant. (2) I can enjoy pasta without Chianti. And (3) when I don’t drink, I do almost everything better, including, as Ernest Hemingway knew, writing.

Which brings me to this…

From Letters of Note: Ernest Hemingway – a PPS to a letter to Ivab Kashin, Aug. 19, 1935

“Don’t you drink? I notice you speak slightingly of the bottle. I have drunk since I was 15 and few things have given me more pleasure. When you work hard all day with your head and know you must work again the next day what else can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like whisky? When you are cold and wet what else can warm you? Before an attack who can say anything that gives you the momentary well-being that rum does? I would as soon not eat at night as not to have red wine and water. The only time it isn’t good for you is when you write or when you fight. You have to do that cold. But it always helps my shooting. Modern life, too, is often a mechanical oppression and liquor is the only mechanical relief. Let me know if my books make any money and I will come to Moscow and we will find somebody that drinks and drink my royalties up to end the mechanical oppression.”