Drunkenness

Last June, the country was shocked by the deaths of Len Bias and Don Rogers. If we remember, both deaths were due to cocaine intoxication used during celebration. The display that was given to me and my family the other night by the New York Mets was basically the same. We apparently need to celebrate happy occasions in our country with some sort of intoxicant. Watching Keith Hernandez guzzle champagne on camera was a great role model for my children! The pitchers laying around on the pitching mound during the postgame celebration guzzling, spraying and drinking in full view of our nation's young people certainly demonstrated the ideals we all desire for our children.

The New York Civil Liberties Union officially challenged the city's new campaign against drunken driving, filing a lawsuit against the Police Department's practice of permanently seizing suspects' cars. Police have seized 79 cars from 151 drivers since the policy took effect Feb. 21. The civil liberties group argues that the policy is unconstitutional and denies drivers due process by seizing their property before their cases are heard.

Kerry Collins, admitting he broke the law, was charged with drunken driving Monday, hours after being taunted by Carolina Panther fans in his return to the city where he once was cheered. A police report said Collins, a backup quarterback for the Saints, was stopped after the car he was driving was observed crossing the center line on a downtown Charlotte street about 12:50 a.m. "Obviously I made a mistake.

A drunken Thai soldier hurled a grenade onto a crowded dance floor in a Buddhist temple in northern Thailand, killing three dancers and wounding 67 other people, police said Thursday. Authorities mounted a search for the soldier.

Several Greenland politicians spent the night in police cells after their parliamentary Christmas party got too festive. Police were called several times during the celebration, the only time in the year when alcohol is allowed to be served in the Parliament building in Greenland's capital, Nuuk. Denmark's Ritzau news agency, quoting the Greenland newspaper Atuagagdliutit, said police did not have to take the partying legislators too far to calm them down Friday. The police station is next

"A Time for Drunken Horses," the fifth film in this fall's Shooting Gallery Film Series, moves today from the Loews Beverly Center Cinemas to Landmark's Westside Pavilion Cinemas, 10800 W. Pico Blvd. between Westwood Boulevard and Overland Avenue. The series, which began in 1999, has spawned such independent successes as "Croupier" and "Judy Berlin."

On the morning of June 29, 2008, Robert Moran made a $4.75-million mistake. He had knocked back a couple of beers hours earlier, dressed for work, jumped into his employer's SUV and headed off on an important assignment. He was drunk and allegedly speeding when he collided with a smaller car, seriously injuring the other driver. Moran, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, was convicted of drunk driving and sentenced to six months in jail. He managed to keep his job with the Sheriff's Department, but his conduct still exacted a costly toll — at least for county taxpayers who have to pay the multimillion-dollar settlement approved by the Board of Supervisors last week.

  Total time: 10 minutes Servings: 1 cocktail Note: Adapted from Julian Cox of Short Order. Thin Mints can be substituted with a similar type of chocolate-mint cookie. 2 scoops chocolate ice cream 2 scoops vanilla ice cream 1 ounce Irish whisky, preferably Powers 1/2 ounce creme de menthe, preferably Tempus Fugit 1/2 ounce Fernet Branca-Menta 1 ounce crushed Thin Mints Chocolate sauce, for garnish Mint spring, for garnish Thin Mint, for garnish In a blender, blend the chocolate ice cream, vanilla ice cream, Irish whisky, creme de menthe, Fernet Branca-Menta and crushed Thin Mints.

As a merry Mouseketeer and then as a big-screen beach bunny, Annette Funicello, who died Monday at age 70, was the first love for a couple of generations of young Americans. (Perhaps not exclusively male Americans, but people were more tight-lipped about these things in those days.) In her own, small way, she is as memorable a monument of mid-20th-century American womanhood as Marilyn Monroe or Doris Day. Teenage stars, especially those who come out of television, or whose recording careers are presided over by professional hitmakers, are often and often unfairly described as "manufactured," however many records they sell or lives they enliven.

Short on judicial majesty but long on streetwise practicality, Homeless Court is in session. "No one is going to jail this afternoon," Superior Court Judge Leo Valentine Jr. assures three-dozen people waiting nervously on folding chairs at the city's largest homeless shelter. "We're here to work with you."