Drinking Out Loud

Addiction and advertising can be funny. Who knew?

At the age of 8 Augusten Burroughs was driven to drink by Bewitched. "I worshipped Darren Stevens the First," he writes in his new memoir, Dry (St. Martin's; 293 pages). "When he'd come home from work, Samantha would say, 'Darren, would you like me to fix you a drink?' He'd always rest his briefcase on the table below the mirror in the foyer...and say, 'Better make it a double.'" Burroughs would uncap one of his father's liquor bottles, upend it with his hand pressed over the top, then recap it and lick his palm.

In last year's improbably hilarious best seller...

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