Butting in to say that the loss of driving wouldn't be so bad for Giles since he's in San Francisco.Same with NYC, Chicago, London, etc. I've given up my car, as have lots of folks I know. It's a much less important a loss than sex, when you've got semi-decent public transit.

On the other hand, having just come back from Europe, I do think he'd be less sanguine about the loss of alcohol, the USA approach to which is just silly.