Editor’s Note: For the second of three weeks, the news and features sections examine the role of alcohol in the lives of college students.

Check out the last week’s story on Safe Rides.

It can happen to almost anyone. It’s late at night and the party has moved past its prime. Most likely, a brown bottle with the label torn off is in-hand and half-empty plastic cups of lukewarm beer are scattered around the room. The smooth stream of consciousness running from the brain to the mouth, otherwise known as speech, has become a bit potholed. Subtly swaying, a nonchalant hand digs into a pocket to pull out what could turn a good night into a regrettable one. It’s a cell phone.

The best possible conclusion to this scenario is a call to the local taxi company and the intoxicated individual riding off into the sunrise.

Drunk dialing is notoriously viewed as a moment when those near a dial tone dare to call up a former significant other, a prospective one, friends or anyone else unfortunate enough to be saved in a cell phone address book.

What typically ensues is usually the equivalent of a Texas-sized meteor striking Earth, leaving a sizeable crater of regret and disbelief the following morning.

“My ex-boyfriend’s dad called me once and I could immediately tell he was drunk,” senior communications major Katie Ambrosoli said. “So I sat there on the phone for almost two hours while he told me pretty much his life story. – I found out a lot of stuff I didn’t want to know, but after that certain things about his family made much more sense.”

In the case of senior kinesiology major Marty McCrory, he was the inebriated one doing the dialing.

“I sent a fax at two in the morning to a place where I was trying to get a job,” McCrory said. “I was drunk and didn’t think I was going to get it. Then I called the manager to confirm that it had gone through and left a long and stuttering message on his voice mail.”

Somehow McCrory got the job, but said he felt just a tad worried the next morning about his upcoming interview.

Others tend to keep their prospective employers out of their inebriated activities and just call friends to get a laugh.

“Usually I just start to prank call people I know,” liberal studies graduate Joe Belloti said. “I’ll try and disguise my voice and just talk nonsense.”

Belloti said that the mixture of alcohol and telephones can bring people together more than they realize.

“You feel a lot more friendly towards people that you probably wouldn’t talk to when you’re sober,” Belloti said.

Drunkdialer.com is dedicated to the many brave and senseless persons who have dedicated long intoxicated nights to verbally sparring on the phone. The Web site provides a list of tips for those who do make that fateful call. “Never admit wrong doing from years ago” and “Never say I love you” are highlights. The list also warns: “No matter what, the conversation will always end up pissing you off.”

Another Web site, slackertown.com, encourages drunk dialers to call their “hotline” and a leave a message. Web site visitors can then listen to the sometimes funny, sometimes disturbing messages left by late-night lushes.

And although drunk dialing may be considered by some a harmless and fun activity, others feel it to be something of an annoyance. Being on the other end of the line can be a different experience.Picking up a ringing phone in the middle of the night and hearing a string of inaudible words, a lot of background noise and unassailable laughter can be quite a rude awakening.

“Usually when someone drunk calls you, they want to tell you all about their feelings,” junior psychology major Stephanie Barnes said. “And they think that what they have to say is so important and can’t wait until the morning.”

Barnes said the biggest annoyance in being drunk dialed is that a rational conversation is usually out of the question. “They tend to try and resolve conflicts that aren’t even there,” Barnes said.

“My friend called me at 1 a.m. and told me that I shouldn’t be mad at him for something that had happened over a month ago,” Barnes said. “He wouldn’t believe that I didn’t even remember what had happened.”

Josh Huggett can be reached at [email protected]