The beginning of December marked the quiet launch of another addition to the New York Times underground network of blogs. This one is called "Proof: Alcohol and American Life." Interesting right? So great New York drinking spots, recipes, and the occasional meditation on alcohol and society?

Negative. Out of the four posts that have gone up this month, three include dark personal narratives about, as one poster puts it, "the savage, destructive power of alcoholism." Sure, it's in the middle of a pretty interesting analysis of how drunkenness went out of fashion in New York, but really? The entire contents of "Proof" so far something like an Alcoholics Anonymous pity party: