We’re not so very drunk

Sober, tipsy or thoroughly sloshed, most Charlestonians share pride in this special place.

Thus, many of us who’ve had one, a few or even a few too many not only resent but dispute The Daily Beast’s ranking of Charleston as the nation’s “fourth drunkest” city.

The top 10 from that online magazine, in order: Boston, Norfolk, Milwaukee, Charleston, Austin, Hartford-New Haven, New Orleans, Chicago, Washington, Providence.

OK, so this world-renowned tourist destination features many taverns and restaurants where folks can have a good time — and where ample volumes of alcohol-laced libations are consumed to that end.

And as our population of 20-somethings has grown in recent decades along with the enrollments at our institutions of higher learning, inevitably so has the local intake of beer, wine and assorted liquors.

But the Beastly rating credibility goes down the drain when it puts us three spots drunker than No. 7 New Orleans.

Judge for yourself: The Holy City’s hot spot is King Street. The Crescent City’s is Bourbon Street.

And while we’re newcomers to the dubious achievement of making a “drunkest city” list, we’ve long been rightly hailed as “the most polite city” in the land.

So again, judge for yourself:

If we’re really remarkably polite (and we are), how could we also be remarkably drunk?

After all, the more intoxicated you are, the less likely you are to mind your manners.

So cheers to Charleston, regardless of your beverage preference.

But jeers to throwing us into the virtual drunk tank of America’s most besotted cities.