This blog is about alcoholism with particular emphasis on the destructive behavior patterns exhibited by those alcoholics who have not yet reached the final, self-destructive stage. In other words, most of them
... For
Mr. Trump, a presidential candidate whose appeal is predicated on an
aura of toughness, personal achievement and perpetual success, the story
of Freddy, a handsome, gregarious and self-destructive figure who died
as an alcoholic in 1981 at the age of 43, is bleak and seldom told.
In
a telephone interview last week, Mr. Trump said he had learned by
watching his brother how bad choices could drag down even those who
seemed destined to rise. Seeing his brother suffering led him to avoid
ever trying alcohol or cigarettes, he said.
I found it interesting that Donald Trump's brother had been an alcoholic air line pilot who had eventually stopped flying of his own volition. Having met more than one active alcoholic who was employed as an airline pilot, I believe he was an exception.
(For the skeptics: I learned many years ago that there is a sub-group within AA of pilots who were alcoholics in recovery. They call themselves "Birds of a Feather." Moreover, Buzz Aldrin, who was a test pilot before becoming an astronaut and going, literally, to the moon, has disclosed that he was an active alcoholic while performing those challenging jobs.)
The following are excerpted from a review by Charles McGrath of ‘Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal,’ by Jay Parini appearing in The New York Times on November 29, 2015. "We get once again Vidal’s lonely childhood with a monstrous, alcoholic mother ... "
"Readers hoping for more lurid details — Vidal, unable to open a bottle
of Scotch, smashing it against a fireplace and guzzling from the broken
neck, or lunging so abruptly for a bottle that his suspenders snap and
his pants fall down — will have to turn to [another book published earlier this year.]"
... This past Oct. 4, after a bender that turned a weekend in Baltimore
into a 48-hour stretch in which the large lefty’s mind went blank,
Sabathia finally understood he was an alcoholic in desperate need of
immediate help.
That was a Sunday, and the Yankees were completing the regular season
and preparing to host the Astros at Yankee Stadium two days later in
the AL wild-card game.
Sabathia walked into the Camden Yards visiting manager’s office and
told Joe Girardi, trainer Steve Donohue, pitching coach Larry Rothschild
and director of mental conditioning Chad Bohling he was leaving the team and headed for help at Silver Hill, a Connecticut alcohol rehabilitation center.
He’s one of NBC’s biggest success stories — keeping “The Tonight
Show” at the top of the late-night ratings with bouncy show tunes and
campy games. Modal TriggerJimmy FallonPhoto: FilmMagic
Now Jimmy Fallon is also one of NBC’s biggest worries.
On Oct. 24, Fallon was stitched up at a hospital in Cambridge, Mass.,
after falling — and dropping a bottle of Jägermeister — while receiving
the Harvard Lampoon’s Elmer Award for Excellence in Humor. “I threw the
bottle and then I landed on broken glass,” a bandaged Fallon recapped
on his show the following Monday. “There [were] pools of blood
everywhere.”
It’s the party guy’s third injury in four months, and sources say NBC
is worried that Fallon’s drinking has turned excessive. And while
they’re not doing anything about it — yet — “It’s gone from being a
whisper to a chatter,” says one industry insider of Fallon’s
over-the-top behavior.
