Fun Friday, Drunk Edition

I picked up this book on a whim yesterday, and already it is paying dividends:

The cogener denounced as the main culprit in a hangover is methanol. Humans metabolize methanol in a similar way to ethanol, but the end product is different. Ethanol generates acetaldehyde, but when methanol is broken down, a major product is formaldehyde, which is more toxic than acetaldehyde and can cause blindness or death in high concentrations. Ethanol inhibits the metabolism of methanol; this may be why drinking "the hair of the dog" can alleviate hangover symptoms.

Studies have found that the severity of different drinks' hangover symptoms declines in this order:

Brandy, red wine, rum, whiskey, white wine, gin, vodka, and pure ethanol.

The book was published by the excellent New Scientist.