Last Call: Are We Heading For A Boozeless Future?

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I always look forward to Jeff Alworth's beer writing for his website, Beervana. His latest post—What If We Just Stop Drinking?—is an especially fun read, and a real doozy of a thought experiment. He cites data on Americans' declining per-capita consumption of booze over time (Susan Cheevers' entertaining Drinking In America fleshes out that history) and poses the question: Are our social mores moving us toward a teetotaling future? I highly doubt that extreme will come to pass, but it's hard to argue that Americans haven't become more measured in our booze guzzling. That's good news for our livers, and bad news for companies who make money off the hardest drinkers among us. [Kate Bernot]

Ted Danson! Such is his power that I brighten each and every time one of his Smirnoff ads pops up on screen. As such, I clicked so hard on this Ad Age story about the series of spots that had I sprained my finger or aggravated my carpal tunnel, I would not have been greatly surprised. I highly suggest watching the six-second clip that's embedded first in the piece, which was (very obviously and delightfully) improvised. Nearly as delightful is the revelation that Joe Mande, one of The Good Place's ace writers, was on-set and would help adjust scripts on the fly. They are terrific and I love them. I have no comment on the vodka itself. [Allison Shoemaker]