The Nanny State Crushes All

Megan McCardle looks back at America’s wild and carefree recent history:

The wild, drunken office Christmas party used to be a staple of television, books, and movies. Now I feel as if it’s dropped pretty thoroughly out of the popular imagination; the only example I can think of recently is a fleeting scene in Bridget Jones’ Diary. Were office holiday parties really that much wilder in the past? Or have we just stopped noticing, literarily?

Something tells me that David Harsanyi can answer Megan McCardle’s question.

(By the way, note the reference to AMC’s Mad Men series in the comments.)