you like drinking games, do you?

every year, the president of the united states recites a well-rehearsed script informing us, his beloved citizens, of the state of our blessed union.

every year, as a coping mechanism, i play along. i've developed a little game called, "pick a word of patriotism." each person chooses a word the president is likely to use during the SOTU address (congress, democracy, weapons of mass destruction, etc.) for every time the president utters your word, you get to take a drink of the alcohol of your choice. it's fun, and it fucks you up. . .enough to tolerate the bushisms, anyway.

well. . .look what the new york times did.

they gave us a little interactive tool to analyze exactly how wasted you've gotten yourself during the last 7 speeches.

for example, i chose the word "freedom." according to the NYT, i guzzled from my wine glass seventeen times in 2006, but was only afforded with 3 shots of jagermeister in 2007.
my little brother happened to be in the united states during last years SOTU, and he picked the word "america." for all his trouble, george bush awarded him with 72 chances to sip whiskey. this year, had pat been in the country, he would have drank 42 more times.

so maybe it's "hope" you're into, or "iraq," or "oil" perhaps. but let me warn you, "global warming" is not an advised choice, as the president has only addressed the concept once in the last 7 speeches, and even then referred to it as a "global climate change."

it's too bad they don't have a graphic to show how many monkey faces he makes. maybe next year.