This just seems wrong to me...

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

http://shop.marvel.com/cat/Iron-Man/Glassware/

[Randy Jackson]

Just like Hank Pym hitting Jan, some things are just never forgotten.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

Well...to be fair...alcoholism, being sent back to King Arthur's court with Doom, and the current stuff Fraction is doing...those are Tony's comic highlights...

[Cavaliere (moderator emeritus)]

Uh...maybe it's Rhodey in the armour? Yeah! That's it!

(Oh. And I'd add the first "Armor Wars" to Tony's highlights.)

[Rich Lane]

This is like every year at our 12th graders' senior banquet. After being told for more than a decade about the horrors of underage drinking, these eighteen-year-olds are congratulated for a job well done and sent out the door with a pilsner glass with their graduation year and the school logo emblazoned on it.

[Ana Canino-Fluit (Anacoqui- mod)]

What!

Rich Lane said:

This is like every year at our 12th graders' senior banquet. After being told for more than a decade about the horrors of underage drinking, these eighteen-year-olds are congratulated for a job well done and sent out the door with a pilsner glass with their graduation year and the school logo emblazoned on it.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Well, by then they aren't underage, so what's the problem?

Rich Lane said:

This is like every year at our 12th graders' senior banquet. After being told for more than a decade about the horrors of underage drinking, these eighteen-year-olds are congratulated for a job well done and sent out the door with a pilsner glass with their graduation year and the school logo emblazoned on it.

[The Baron]

ClarkKent_DC said:

Well, by then they aren't underage, so what's the problem?

Rich Lane said:

This is like every year at our 12th graders' senior banquet. After being told for more than a decade about the horrors of underage drinking, these eighteen-year-olds are congratulated for a job well done and sent out the door with a pilsner glass with their graduation year and the school logo emblazoned on it.

If we're talking high school students, they're not legal to drink at 18.

[Rich Lane]

The drinking age in PA (which I assumed was the same as the rest of the country these days) is 21. Graduates from high school are 18-19.

The Baron said:

ClarkKent_DC said:

Well, by then they aren't underage, so what's the problem?

Rich Lane said:

This is like every year at our 12th graders' senior banquet. After being told for more than a decade about the horrors of underage drinking, these eighteen-year-olds are congratulated for a job well done and sent out the door with a pilsner glass with their graduation year and the school logo emblazoned on it.

If we're talking high school students, they're not legal to drink at 18.

[The Baron]

I was under the impression that drinking age was 21 nationwide.

[Rich Lane]

Back when I was in high school, it was 21 in PA, but 18 in New York. What this meant to me and my friends was that when we turned 18, we'd hop in a car, drive the 45 minutes to the border and get wasted in the bars up in or around Jamestown.

It was probably a smart thing to standardize the age limit.

The Baron said:

I was under the impression that drinking age was 21 nationwide.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Well, my flip answer has changed ... the drinking age isn't 21 nationwide, because it's a matter of state law, and each state can set the age where it wants.

But a bit of research (cue Wikipedia here: "Legal Drinking Age"), changes that answer somewhat. Once upon a time, the drinking age in the 50 states varied, as each state, of course, can set the drinking age where it wants. But thanks to a federal law ("The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984"), any given state would forfeit a portion of its federal highway funding if that age is younger than 21, so most states have, indeed, set the age at 21. However, the consumption of alcohol isn't specifically forbidden to those under 21 in all 50 states under The National Minimum Drinking Age Act; some states have imposed such a restriction and some haven't, and some have exceptions for consumption in private settings or with family members.

So, I stand corrected. What I was getting at was the notion that if you've graduated from high school and you're now legal, why would it be a terrible thing to get a gift glass? But then, I see a difference between underage drinking being bad and drinking to excess being bad and any drinking by anybody at all being bad, and I get the clear sense that if Mothers Against Drunk Driving had its way, it would legislate the legal blood alcohol level down to 0.00.

But having graduated from high school doesn't, today, mean one is old enough to drink, so I withdraw my comment.

On the other hand, if one graduates from high school today and IS old enough to drink, then there are some other problems at play ...

[Alan M.]

The Baron said:

I was under the impression that drinking age was 21 nationwide.

The federal government has a law by which it withholds certain funds (infrastructure funding, I think) for any state that doesn't institute a 21-years-old age for the legal purchase of alcohol. So a state CAN be under 21, but they aren't going to be.

Additionally, the age of purchase and the age of drinking are different things. That's not regulated federally, so different states have different policies for what (if any) ramifications under-21s face for drinking alcohol, and most recognize an exception for at-home/family-provided drinking, religious observances, and etc. (According to Wikipedia, "14 states and the District of Columbia ban underage consumption outright, 19 states do not specifically ban underage consumption, and an additional 17 states have family member and/or location exceptions to their underage consumption laws.")