Iowa loves it's booze even more now than a few years ago.

Before I even moved to the Quad Cities and was just visiting here to interview for a radio gig, I could tell quickly that beer is an art form here. There are so many breweries and microbreweries that create all kinds of different brews for all kinds of palates, from bitter and smoky to fruity and sweet. We all love a glass of wine (or a cocktail in my case) to wind down after a hard day at work.

A new study shows that the pandemic did not help that in Iowa either.

We remember the early days of the 'vid, right? "Tiger King" was on Netflix, everybody you know was making sourdough bread, and TikTok was just getting momentum going. We thought "work from home" would just last a couple of weeks. Lol.

KCCI reports that a new statewide survey shows that 60% of Iowans say that they're drinking more since the pandemic.

Is it because we had nothing to do for about two years?

via GIPHY

I definitely did utilize the mini-Fireball bottles to try to get rid of any Covid symptoms. To go off of that, because the pandemic was definitely stressful, 45% of Iowans say that stress is a reason that they drink more, especially women (I can confirm there's a litany of reasons why we need margs). But it also looks like our drinking habits overall are shifting.

Christine Reay, general manager of Rookies Sports Bar & Grill in Clive, told KCCI:

It just seems like more and more people are coming in sitting at the bar, staying longer. People are drinking earlier in the day; drinking more with lunch.

Chill out y'all.

Iowa Is 2nd In The Nation In Excessive Drinking

Not a stat to be proud of but the new study found that Iowa ranks 2nd in the entire U. S. of A. in excessive drinking. The study found that 22.8% of Iowa adults report binge or heavy drinking. (Binge: 4 or more drinks on one occasion for a woman, 5 or more drinks on one occasion for a man. Heavy: 8 or more drinks in a week for a woman, 15 or more drinks in a week for a man.) That's a lot of Pedialyte in the morning.

If you're thinking "...second? How are we second?", I wish I could tell you who is number one but the state report doesn't list it.

Quad Cities 15 Sexiest Halloween Costumes

Halloween is a great time of year. It's a chance for people to dress up to be an entirely different person. Some people take the gory route, others jump in giant inflatables, and some people really want to show off what they have been blessed with. If you're looking to take the sexy direction for Halloween this year, these are the Quad Cities' 15 sexiest Halloween costumes.

I Turned The Quad Cities Into AI Art

To get the AI pictures all I had to do was type in the name of the city, and the state, the algorithm did the rest.

All these photos are computer generated, and at first glance, it looks pretty good... some more than others, but the longer you look the more you notice how weird each one is.

These are all 5 cities in the QC. To start I typed in "Quad Cities" to see the results

Source: Here’s Why Iowa Now Ranks In Top Of Nation For Excessive Drinking