Save a Drunken Duck

(Photo Credit: Bridget Jones/Associated Press)

I think my cynicism is getting to me this morning.

I know, particularly as a resident of Michigan, I should be more concerned about the financial and personal woes felt throughout the state and country as GM locations everywhere close, cutting thousands of jobs and creating a ripple that will be felt many times over in all types of industries.

However, I can't help but find the English version of this sad tale far more disconcerting: the loss of the local pub.

Henry Chu reports in the LA Times this morning,

Colorful and often iconic establishments that managed to survive civil wars, frowning Victorian teetotalism and tales of being haunted are increasingly buckling under to modern market forces, higher taxes and lifestyle changes.

Every week, 39 alehouses call for "last orders" one final time, according to the British Beer and Pub Assn. All told, more than 2,000 taverns have shut down since March of last year, at a cost of 20,000 jobs.

It's an especially distressing turn of events for those in the countryside, who warn that villages may eventually be reduced to little more than rural dormitories, stripped of the shops, services and gathering places that gave them a sense of identity and cohesion.

The Belfast Telegraph reports a similar scenario in Ireland as pubs cut hours and employees or close altogether.

I don't know. Maybe it's the fact that I have yet to visit either country. Maybe it's my already very Irish and English leanings . . . but I would most definitely consider giving up my own identity and exchanging my protein shakes for pints to help save theirs!