Alize

On my walk from the BART station to the office, I pass through a couple of, shall we say, shady areas. Let’s just say there are no shortages of bums in the general neighborhood. As such, these bums often help decorate the walkways and gutters along the streets with empty alcohol bottles. And hey, that's all right. Who am I to say what people should be doing when they aren’t spending their time working and paying taxes to help pay for the clean up their trash? But I digress. What's interesting about this is how often I see Alize bottles among the general bum detritus. So often, in fact, that it seems to be a full-blown phenomenon. And one I fail to understand, at that.

By way of background, Alize is a blend of cognac and various fruit juices. A pint of it costs around $7 - $10 and it is 16 percent alcohol. Just as a data point, let's compare that to, say, Georgi Vodka. A pint of that stuff -- containing more than twice the alcohol -- costs less than a pint of Alize.

So I just don't get it. It's frustrating! Some people want to intervene and help the homeless find housing or employment or health care services. I want to help them with their choice of booze. If they just went for the wood varnish remover they sell in the liquor stores as "gin," they could get so much more bang for their buck. Sure, it's not as stylish, but until a steady stream of cash can be expected, some sacrifices have to be made. I mean, really, are homeless people saving up money to buy truffles? From the crap that I see on the streets, my guess is not. I notice that homeless people flock to Taco Bell, McDonald’s and Burger King. And with good reason, you know how much food you can get for super cheap? So why does the same not hold true for alcohol? It's a mystery to me.

Basically, it's just unfortunate to see the homeless people throwing away their hard-begged cash like that. It's almost like bums don't have a strong sense of money. Huh. I wonder why? To all the homeless blog readers out there: what do you think? We can do this together, right? If you can't make sensible decisions about your intoxicants, then what CAN you be sensible about?