In The Name Of The Grandfather, Season 20: Ep 14

This episode was a relatively satisfying, I mean who doesn’t like to poke fun at the Irish right? But that’s beside the point. The episode starts off at a convention center; Marge had dragged her family to a Home and Garden Expo. Needless to say this is start to a series of events that leads Homer and his father into a legal battle in Europe after knocking back a few too many. Homer and his family had been strangely drawn to the soothing sound of the hot tub section, and being Homer, made the rash financial call to purchase a hot tub right on the spot.

The Simpsons had bathed themselves all day, night and day again in their new hot tub. Unfortunately, Grandpa had missed out on a fun filled day of activities during the nursing homes annual family fun day. So Grandfather had left the home to see what had caused his family’s absence.

Once Grandfather had found out about what had replaced his special day, he broke the hot tub and broke down; he told his family about his dream to revisit Ireland before he had passed away. Within a few hours, the Simpsons found themselves in Ireland, Homer and his dad took to drinking while the rest of the family took in the sights.

Where I would like to go with this is the dangers of alcohol. The Simpsons had drunk themselves to the point of a blackout. During this blackout, they had signed the deed to a dying Irish pub named O’Flanagans. This deal must have been a fiscal suicide, and eventually lead them into legal troubles.

To college and high school students; drinking is a fun activity, not going to argue. But excessive drinking to blackout points can be dangerous to yourself and others. The Simpsons had showed that they didn’t realize they purchased a pub, but what if you hadn’t realized you drove a friend home drunk and got in an accident, had unprotected sex or died from an alcohol poisoning?

You never know what will happen during a blackout. Last winter I was hit by a drunk driver, thankfully it was just a minor fender bender with no injuries. But this was as close as I wanted to get to the subject of a horrific accident involving an intoxicated driver. The Simpsons had grazed the dangers of drinking, but this one segment had brought back horrified memories of my encounter with a person who had too much to drink.

In closing, drinking is a fun activity but can lead to stupid acts. The Simpsons comically portrayed a poor decision to drink as much as they did, but that is a cartoon. In real life you don’t always get a second chance. The drunk driver that hit me hung himself in jail after being picked up by the police because he was going to be sentenced to jail for a long time; he left a wife and two kids behind.