REMEMBERING THE OLD DAYS: Gay Talese: New York Times Was Drunker Than Mad Men.

In a new video from Big Think, aptly titled “Getting Drunk at The New York Times,” Talese acknowledges that the old stereotype is true: many great writers were also very heavy drinkers. There was “a celebration of alcoholism almost within the creative arts, even in journalism,” he explains in the clip. The spirited old-timer goes on to describe his first time in the City Room at the Times, and watching a man “whose head fell on his typewriter” from a few too many midday trips to the cabinet. . . . That show Mad Men, Talese says, was nothing: “The drinking that went on in journalism was beyond that.”

I’d say find out what they were drinking, and send some to the Times’ current staff . . . .