"Since when is it considered unprofessional for a journalist to take a drink?" That's Jack Shafer's response to the Cincinnati Post's official ban on alcohol in the newsroom. Apparently, "As hard drugs are to the hard-rocker and tattoos are to the NBA player, so booze is to the journalist—even if he doesn't drink." That is, to be a creative, functioning journalist, one needs some top shelf around. Hell, a plastic bottle of $6.99 vodka will do. Just ask Shafer's fellow Slate scribe Christopher Hitchens, who'd be out of a career with a policy like that. [Slate]