Office parties, neighborhood parties, family parties. Eggnog, champagne, whiskey (for the family parties), wine. In the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s the opportunities to be hungover grow exponentially. If I remember my pre-calculus correctly (and there’s a good chance that I don’t) the graphical representation of what we’re now experiencing ends up looking something like this:
It’s a rough six weeks. Luckily, National Geographic would like to help. They have kindly gathered information about “Hangover Helpers” from around the globe. So if the Gatorade and Smartfood just aren’t cutting it you can try Romania’s recommendation and eat some tripe soup, because nothing says “anti-nausea” like a healthy serving of cow stomach. In Poland they recommend drinking soured milk or very sour pickle juice. I can’t imagine that that does anything other than make you vomit and if that’s the case, I’d rather take care of that Blair Waldorf style. In Japan, they eat pickled plums to cure “futsuka yoi” or, “two days drunk” and in Mexico the drug of choice is a nice shrimp cocktail or seafood salad (the real kind, not the first-grader version). The salad is appropriately named “Vuelva a la vida” or “return to life.”
My favorite “cure” is probably that found in the Netherlands: a big, tall glass of cold beer. Although it’s usually hard to imagine drinking anything alcoholic when you wake up in the morning feeling like your head is on backwards, in my family we favor a little Irish Coffee to settle the stomach or, on really bad days, straight shots of Jameson, and it seems to do the trick (I wasn’t kidding when I mentioned that we’re a walking stereotype).
No matter your potion of choice, party on! There are tons of antidotes to experiment with and you have plenty of opportunities to do so! Plus, it’s Christmas and nothing says “praise be to the Lord, Jesus Christ” like too many glasses of eggnog.
[posted by Madeline]
six words to change the world. 