There are some activities that, for some strange reason, you tend to improve upon once you get a few bottles of beer in you: bowling, horseshoes, pool, Wednesday night softball. Maybe it's the liquid courage that calms the nerves and takes some of the edge off.

Whatever benefits 12-ounce curls provide, there are limits to that sense of serenity that mysteriously comes after a few sips of suds. Standing over a 10-foot putt for par looks so much different after four beers than one. I usually miss the putt even when I'm sober, so it doesn't really matter, but that's not the point here.

So when I saw that booze is actually an integral part of a game called beer pong, which has grown from a backyard craze at fraternity houses into an annual nationwide tournament with a $20,000 grand prize, I naturally perked up and then hiccupped.

The Web site, www.bpong.com, is dedicated to promoting the "sport," a simple game that puts opponents at each end of a ping-pong table and has them tossing ping-pong balls into cups filled with beer. If you sink it, the loser drinks it. What a concept!

Cool stuff

+ The second annual World Series of Beer Pong is set for Jan. 1-5 in Las Vegas. Even though the winner gets $20,000, there really are no losers. Think about it. When you lose, that just means you're drunk in Vegas. What's the harm in that?

+ When you're drunk, you can justify anything. A sampling: "Beer pong brings together alcoholism and competition into one symbiotic organization," Chris Cobb, a 29-year-old paramedic from South Carolina told the Las Vegas Review-Journal at the national tournament earlier this year. Is this the guy who invented the Bum Fights videos?

Check at the door

+ The rules stipulate you can fill cups with anything liquid. Can you imagine pounding a cup of milk or cranberry juice or, heaven forbid, water? Where's the glory in that?

+ Team France won the first-ever World Series of Beer Pong. I thought those guys were winos.

The grade

Just the fact that I'm getting paid to talk about beer is making me giddy. I just slapped on my beer goggles and I'm ready to grade: four out of five mouses. I love everyone! Burp!

Marc Figueroa is now sleeping one off. When he wakes up and only after he takes two aspirin, he can be reached at marcfig@aol.com.