Return of the Schnapps Owl

"I bet you was drunk as a hoot-owl at 15, 14 - You're not the man I married but dammit the reason for that is because you were puttin' up a front when I married you, crook." So VISIONS OF GERARD by Jack Kerouac goes on our definitive and unnecessary list of books with owls in them, not a literal owl, but sometimes it's not a literal owl, get over it. And once again the owl is drunk, as in (maybe) the phrase "sore as a boiled owl" I was puzzling over not too long ago. I am not sure where the association of owls with drunkenness comes from, nor am I energetic enough to find out, but I do suddenly recall learning from Sara Gran of a true-life police report about an owl drunk on schnapps. Anecdotal evidence at best! I have not seen the statistics.