People often forget that the Three Martini Lunch used to be tax deductible in the US until various government curmudgeons, including Jimmy Carter in the 1976 Presidential election campaign, hastened its demise claiming poor people were subsidising the rich's drinking habits.

After the election his opponent, incumbent President Gerald R Ford, in a 1978 speech to the National Restaurant Association, responded with: "The three-martini lunch is the epitome of American efficiency. Where else can you get an earful, a bellyful and a snootful at the same time?"