Originally Posted by the Buzz

Kristi L. Gustafson
Albany Times Union
Aug. 1, 2005 02:33 PM

When you've had too much to drink and you're missing your ex, suddenly it seems nothing in the world is more important than pulling out the cell, scanning through the phone book and dialing someone, anyone - friends, an ex, even a family member.

"When we're drunk, we lose our inhibitions," says Lisa Daily, author of the dating book "Stop Getting Dumped!"

"Sometimes the drink-and-dial is the only way we can express feelings we've kept inside for a while," she said.

It's a behavior limited to humankind, says Katherine Gould, author of "A Tiger in the Bedroom: Lessons From Mother Nature's Sex Shop." "From my research, I can't find a single creature that gets loopy and goes looking for an ex," Gould says.

The calls may be to tell your ex how much he or she hurt you or to let your current beau know exactly what he or she did wrong or a behavior that perpetually bugs you.

Some people use the drunken dial to call a current crush in hopes it'll turn into something more or an ex to repair broken ties. Not that this reconnecting works, Daily says. As a dating columnist, she's received thousands of letters over the years and not once has she encountered a couple who got back together after a drink-and-dial phone exchange.

Sometimes, though, it's less about affairs of the heart.

"Generally, from a male perspective, calling anyone within cab distance after drinking is to have sex," says Seth Kelly, sections editor with Stuff, a lifestyle magazine for young men. Although, he says, it's not the only motive. "Guys might want to talk to their girlfriends for no good reason at all, to tell them how much they miss them or try to make amends for an egregious error."

In Australia, Virgin Mobile offers a service blocking certain pre-chosen numbers from the danger of the late-night dial. It's 25 cents (or about 20 American cents) per number and blocks them from being dialed until 6 a.m. the following day. Virgin also operates in America, but the feature is not yet available here. It's under consideration, according to Sue D'Agostino, spokeswoman with Virgin Mobile USA.

Scientifically, the same thing that can cause you to get behind the wheel of the car when you shouldn't can cause that late-night phone call. "Once one's blood alcohol level gets much over .05," says Dr. Robert Chapman, who directs drug and alcohol education programs at La Salle University in Philadelphia, "judgment heads south in a big hurry."