New York Times launches Proof

From yesterday’s stories about The New York Times having to mortgage its building, it seems like the Grey Lady could use a White Russian right now — or an even stiffer drink. In addition to real estate, the company also runs something like a thousand-million blogs, so it’s not surprising that yesterday they revealed yet another one. Meet Proof, the blog not just about alcohol (NYT already has that) but about alcohol and American life.

Proof is already off to a heady start thanks to a post that reads more like a memoir (and I mean that in a good way) by Texas Monthly writer Jim Atkinson concerning how Atkinson stays away from alcohol over the holiday season. Atkinson, who gained notoriety in the ’80s for his booze-tour book The View From Nowhere, has been a recovering alcoholic for 16 years and writes about how alcoholism crept upon him.

It was the under-the-radar aspect of my addiction that still amazes me.

I know this is a sensation shared by other drunks because every time I

enter an Alcoholics Anonymous room, I am struck not by the expressions

of guilt or defiance or even boredom that I see. I am struck by a more

or less uniform look of cosmic bafflement on the faces of my fellow

addicts. How in the world did this happen?

The fact that Atkinson is the main writer for the blog shows just how serious of an edge it will have. There won’t be any “10 ways to get crunked” articles here, but the other contributors should help keep things relatively light-handed and informative, especially famed mixologist James Meehan.

Meehan created the drinks for PDT, a speakeasy in New York (PDT stands for Please Don’t Tell) that kicked off the speakeasy craze, which has now come to Kansas City in the form of Firefly Lounge at 4118 Pennsylvania in Westport. Meehan also edited Food & Wine’s Cocktails book, a guidebook, if you will, for what trends to expect at bars in the coming year. — Owen Morris