David Potts, Private Eye 'Socialite of the Year' and councillor who laid bare his alcoholism, dies aged 30

"In an interview he said he could sometimes consume up to 70 units of alcohol a day, downing a bottle of vodka before going to work as a financial investor.

"He would sip from a hip flask during the morning, then have up to eight gin and tonics at lunchtime.

"Mr Potts blamed only himself, saying in February: "I don't feel sorry for myself, I've brought this on myself. I am paying now for my addiction to alcohol.

""I'd warn other young people to take a lesson from my book. Alcoholism is ugly and pernicious.""

Link

Units of alcohol are a measure of the volume of pure alcohol in an alcoholic beverage. They are used in some countries as a guideline for alcohol consumption.

Concerning Senator Thomas J Dodd

From the obituary of Michael O'Hare former staff member of the late Connecticut senator 

... "Mr. Dodd strongly rebutted Mr. O’Hare’s testimony, called his bookkeeping “sloppy,” and said his previous confidence in the aide was “misplaced.” Mr. Boyd suggested that the senator needed to discredit Mr. O’Hare’s testimony because “it could put Dodd in jail if it wasn’t broken.”

"As a result, the case often became the word of the senator against the word of his bookkeeper. The two gave different accounts about who had signed the senator’s personal checks at various times. Ms. O’Hare said that if her husband had not lent his authority to the investigation, “it wouldn’t have stuck — and Dodd knew that.”

"In March 1967, Pearson and Anderson wrote a column purporting to explain Mr. Dodd’s lapses. They said he was an alcoholic, an accusation Mr. Boyd said was correct. The columnists, presumably quoting Mr. O’Hare, said he ordered whiskey for the senator, called his home to say Mr. Dodd would be late on Senate business when he was inebriated, and then took him home when he had sobered up sufficiently."


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/us/18ohare.html?_r=0

RIP Robert Hughes

RIP Robert Hughes

Art critic Robert Hughes dies in New York at 74

Relevant excerpt:

"... Comedian Barry Humphries [a/k/a Dame Edna] remembered Hughes as an old friend and towering critic.

“Bob was an old friend and a great and fearless critic who wrote at least one enduring masterpiece, The Fatal Shore,” Humphries said.

“He gave a wonderful and witty speech at my last birthday party in New York and I'm deeply saddened that alcoholism, or whatever name it sometimes goes by, should have claimed yet another distinguished victim.”

In addition to being Time Magazine's influential art critic for many years Hughes was the author of The Fatal Shore a history of Australia's founding.

For more on the incidence of alcoholism in writers see Chapter Seven "Alcoholism Writes" in Vessels of Rage.