The fact that the (legal) drinking age is a whooping 21 in the land of freedom itself never ceases to amaze me. It's 18 here in Norway and 16 in Denmark! One of the funniest experiences when I studied in the UK was seeing 20 year old Americans drink themselves into a light concussion every week. There were actually more pubs than faculties on campus.
Been thinking about a video games thread just to have a place to whine about how much time I've wasted playing Civilization 5 the last few weeks.
I think it's because the government took away the alcohol for a few years during Prohibition, and we pretty much annihilated everything in the country after that happened. Basically, a lack of booze spawned modern Chicago, and everything that people are afraid of concerning it. So they bumped up the age out of fear. That's my answer without bothering to look anything up online.
Pretty much everyone at my university is getting wasted several nights a week (regardless of age {talked about this on the comic somewhere...}), but I think my roommate just didn't know how much he could handle. And, yeah, we've got dozens of bars within walking distance of campus.
Alright, I'll make one real quick. My friends know your pain. I managed to stay away from Civ, thankfully. I didn't want to lose
all my free time.