We know a lot of you are skipping class tomorrow. We won't rat you out. We will, however, take advantage of Tuesday's readership to offer some advice for the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Alcohol, and binge drinking in particular, gets blamed for a lot of the less-than-desirable acts we see. It's been blamed for this season's tailgate getting out of hand. It's reared its head in the blame game for Friday's Pistons-Pacers debacle, it's been named as a factor in some of the unusually high number of sexual assaults reported on campus this semester and it has kept alcohol-related deaths in the headlines of college newspapers across the nation. It's tough to nail booze down as the single culprit in all of these transgressions, but it's not difficult to assume it was a factor, either.

The British Broadcasting Corp. released a study this week reporting that 60 percent of 2,000 Britons considered binge drinking an acceptable activity during the holiday season. No disrespect to our brothers and sisters across the Atlantic, but we ask you to politely ignore the concept that binge drinking is acceptable. Frankly, it isn't.

A good number of MSU students binge drink every week. And, by the criteria for binge drinking, we think many of them would actually be surprised to find out that they've been partaking in it. "Acceptable" or not, though, it's no excuse to go overboard this weekend.

In many areas, Wednesday night will be the most profitable and busiest bar night of the entire year. The holiday gatherings that promote good cheer will begin in earnest on Thursday, and between now and New Year's Day, you're going to have plenty of chances to binge drink. If you choose to drink this holiday season, please be responsible about it. Know your limits, know your drinking buddies, and by no means should you drive a car if you've been boozing. Feel free to relay this information to anyone who skipped class, too.