He Quit Drinking, Didn't Expect the Weird Looks

Charles Blow decided to stop drinking four years ago, and the New York Times columnist writes that it was the best decision he's ever made. His latest column, though, deals with an unexpected aspect of that: "I always understood the moral judgments about overconsumption, but I hadn't anticipated those about nonconsumption," he writes. Blow finds himself running up against a pervasive drinking culture again and again. "Nondrinkers are routinely mocked as either nagging, joy-deprived, vibe killers or lacking the self-control to properly partake in a normal part of adult socialization."

Drinkers sometimes read his decision to abstain as a critique of their decision to imbibe, or they nosily ask him to explain his switch—maybe assuming he'd hit "rock bottom" with booze. (He didn't: Blow explains that while his drinking was habitual, he was lucky enough to not have a physical addiction.) As he navigates this new normal among his friends, Blow writes that he's trying to "relieve the killjoy stigma" that nondrinkers have. He wants to show them it's possible to be both sober and social. "I'm trying to change the culture." (Read the full essay.)