Alcoholic Beverages

In addition to claiming lives, marriages, homes and careers, alcoholism has a greedy way of robbing its victims of brainpower, as well. Over time, alcohol dependence literally shrinks the brain and several of its components. And in so doing, it erodes an alcoholic's ability to learn new tasks, remember things and organize for action. Even regular, heavy drinking can take a cognitive toll, researchers have found.

Did you celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a few too many green beers? Are you experiencing the medical condition commonly known as a hangover?  As you do your best to cope, you might take some solace in the fact that scientists believe humans have been suffering from hangovers ever since our prehistoric ancestors discovered the mind-altering qualities of fermented beverages. “Descriptions of hangovers appear in the writings of ancient Egypt and Greece as well as in the Old Testament,” according to this excellent review article , “Alcohol Hangover: Mechanisms and Mediators.”   If you drink until you become drunk, your chances of developing a hangover are pretty decent; the more you drink, the better your odds.

For moderate social drinkers, hopping on the wagon for a month shouldn't have been that daunting of a task. Not just any moderate social drinkers, but a handful of men and women who are exceptionally fit, as in training-for-a-marathon fit. These are people used to discipline and healthy lifestyles, people who can get through a rigorous boot camp class without hurling. Yet some found that wagon trip much more uncomfortable than they thought, and didn't even last a month.

You know summer's nearly here when your cocktail looks like a snow cone. Or a lassi. Or an ice cream float. Or a fruity soda pop that comes in a glass bottle, complete with bubbles and twist-off cap. A wave of new cocktails that hew toward the playful not only puts us squarely in summer but also is helping to make L.A.'s cocktail scene uniquely its own. The snow cones at Son of a Gun on West 3rd Street are tiki-inspired crushed-ice cocktails...

Surrounded by sand, slathered in sunscreen and holding the coldest of beers in your hot hand, you are sprawled out and gulping down the California Dream. Until an ominous shadow blocks your sun, pours out your beer and hands you a $50 ticket. If Los Angeles beaches are known nationwide as the place to catch West Coast rays and a summer beer buzz, law enforcement officials are going out of their way to change half of that image.

Walk down the aisle of any Beverages & More store and you'll be confronted by boxes and bottles of wine -- and a bevy of wine scores. There are 89 points for the Sterling Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc and 90 points for a Beaulieu Vineyards Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon. Wine merchants across California display various wine ratings to inform customers and promote their wines. There are ratings from Wine Spectator, from Robert Parker of the Wine Advocate and others.

Several alcoholic beverage companies were named in a lawsuit that seeks to recover "unlawful profits" they made by allegedly marketing and advertising their products to underage drinkers. The suit, filed in Superior Court in the District of Columbia by a law firm associated with star litigator David Boies, uses some strategies similar to those used to challenge tobacco industry marketing practices. The defendants in the case include brewers Adolph Coors Co.'s Coors Brewing Co.

The price of vodka and other alcoholic beverages in Poland rose sharply Sunday as part of an official anti-alcohol campaign. Spirits went up by an average of 15% with bigger rises imposed on vodka with high alcohol content, the official news agency PAP announced. The increases followed an overall 10% increase in March.

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday rejected a petition from consumer groups to restrict the advertising of alcoholic beverages, but its chairman warned industry officials that the agency is "looking over their shoulder." By a 4-1 vote, the FTC discounted arguments from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a private organization, and 28 other groups that the advertising and promotion of alcoholic beverages should be banned or limited.

At the urging of parents, teachers and community leaders, Glendale has joined dozens of other cities in banning the sale of alcoholic beverages at gas stations. In so doing, the City Council ignored a recommendation by the city's Planning Commission and unanimously approved an ordinance prohibiting the sale of all alcoholic beverages at any business that also sells gasoline. The Planning Commission had said the ordinance would discriminate against gas stations.

Chris Carpenter pitches for a team once owned by America's largest brewery in a stadium that shares its name with a brand of beer. But should Carpenter wish to toast any of his victories this season he'll have to wait until he leaves the ballpark. That's because the St. Louis Cardinals don't allow beer or other alcoholic beverages in their clubhouse. Same for the Colorado Rockies, who play at Coors Field, and the Milwaukee Brewers, who are not only named after beer makers but play in a stadium (Miller Park)

Gearing up for a big night on New Year's Eve? One that will involve some drinking? Then maybe you need a little primer on hangovers, since you could be nursing one soon. You may already be familiar with the symptoms: The Mayo Clinic lists headache, nausea, vomiting, rapid heartbeat, thirst, not being able to concentrate and dizziness. What causes a hangover? Drinking too much, of course, which leads to a cascade of ill effects. Imbibing can lead to urinating more, says the clinic, which can cause dehydration, then thirst and possibly dizziness.

At Sapphire Laguna in Laguna Beach, you'll find a warm, home-like environment with a sprawling wooden patio and an attractive fire pit. You'll also find a nice-sized list of thoughtful cocktails dreamed up by chef Azmin Ghahreman. The Iranian-born, Swiss-educated chef is an inspired world traveler and adds dabs of different parts of the globe into both his food and his beverage programs. Take his white peach sangria, which is equal parts Spain and Southern California. It's also simple to whip up in a pinch.

Scoring a table at 9 p.m. on a Friday at Wakasan is a little like winning the lottery's Hot Spot. The crowded Westwood pub, whose rustic furnishings give it the nostalgic feel of a family-run countryside tavern, is a haven for Japanese expats who love to while away the evening drinking with friends and nibbling on chef Hiro Wakasan's multicourse omakase. And those bottles on the table? Most aren't sake. "The drink of choice for about 80% of our Japanese customers is honkaku shochu," says owner Wakasan, referring to specialty and regional shochu, sought after for their subtly-layered flavors.

Reporting from San Francisco In response to an assault in the Dodger Stadium parking lot that critically injured a fan on opening day, the Dodgers have cancelled plans to sell alcoholic beverages at half price at six midweek day games this season. "As we said last week, we wanted to take a look at all our policies regarding to alcohol," Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch said. "In taking a look, we decided it was the right thing to do. " County Supervisor Mike Antonovich on Tuesday called for the Dodgers to cancel the half-price alcohol promotion, which was scheduled for April 21, May 4, June 15, June 22, Aug. 10 and Aug. 31. Ted Lilly isn't at peace with his performance in 4-3 loss to the Giants Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said last week that he believed alcohol consumption contributed to problems at Dodger Stadium and that police officials were pushing the Dodgers to raise prices and stop sales at an earlier point in the game.

Kombucha tea, a fermented, sweetened black tea, is popular in alternative health-food circles. It's promoted as a tonic for a variety of illnesses and conditions. But Kombucha products disappeared last year when the federal government announced it was testing the alcohol content of the drinks to see if they should be labeled as alcoholic beverages. It was common for the teas to contain more than 0.5% alcohol — the legal U.S. limit for nonalcoholic drinks. Some manufacturers are changing their formulas to reduce the alcohol content while others may decide to choose to label a product as an alcohol drink.

Days of Wine and Neuroses: We hate to second-guess the surgeon general of the United States, but his alcohol research is seriously flawed. For example, the current warning labels on liquor bottles say things like: "Do not drink during pregnancy," "Consumption of alcoholic beverages may impair your ability to pilot the Exxon Valdez" and "Warning: May make members of the opposite sex appear more attractive than they really are."

With commercial airliners more crowded and heightened security measures threatening long delays at airports, private charter jet companies and rental car agencies may be beneficiaries of the growing airport headaches. A Zogby International poll released last week found that 42% of likely voters said that enhanced pat-down search techniques and the increased use of full-body scanners by the Transportation Security Administration would cause them to use a different mode of transportation.