The Wee Hours

A deep pour of self awareness. (Peter Arkle)

The Wee Hours Takes a Vacation—To Bahamian Dissipation

The grand plan was to stay sober for the month of January, and it failed. It collapsed the moment we touched down in the Bahamas and felt the silky warmth outside the Nassau airport. The whole place was wet with the prospect of booze—its bars, its dewy palm trees, its bikini-wearing swimmers, its cerulean wading pools. The plane’s tires hit the tarmac, and from then on, rum was god.

In the boxy cab we removed our loafers, took off our socks, stuffed them in a spare pocket of a hand-me-down attaché case and shoved our heels back into the miniature leather gondolas. The engine growled down hardy roads, handling the this-way-that-way roundabouts with the finesse of an arcade pinball.

It was 13 degrees in New York and we had taken up our father’s offer of a trip to Paradise Island. Read More

Hurricane Irene

Hurricane-Irene-NY-002

On Wettest Night of the Year, at Least One Spot Parties On

It rained Saturday night! The Wall Street Journal sent reporters to far-flung locales such as Long Island City and Crown Heights, where places decided to stay open despite the fake hurricane that, it turns out, never actually existed. Some barkeeps and deli owners thought, hey, a hurricane has never hit New York before. Maybe it’ll just rain a little. Maybe I can make an extra buck. Maybe things will be OK.

And that’s what happened! They might have gotten a little bit wet, but they did great business. Read More

Drinking

18 Photos

Jamie Shupak, Brian Stelter, Rachel Sklar

Regrets, Only: The Observer’s Media Power Singles Mixer

IT’S BEEN AN INTERESTING FEW WEEKS. Ever since The Observer debuted its Media Power Bachelors and Media Power Bachelorettes lists, many an inbox or IM window in the office have yet to go a day without some noting—be it laudatory, critical, generally humored, or moderately infuriated—of the lists. Feedback for a publication is usual; this kind of feedback has been, in this particular instance, patently unusual. One common response to the lists, especially by those selected for them, was: When are you having the mixer? Read More