Three-martini lunch

[1] It is named from the common belief that many people in the above-mentioned professions have enough leisure time and wherewithal to consume more than one martini during the work day.

The three-martini lunch became particularly identified in popular culture with Madison Avenue advertising executives in the 1960s and 1970s, who supposedly became more creative after such lunchtime libations.

[6] Carter portrayed it as part of the unfairness in the nation's tax laws, claiming that the working class was subsidizing the "$50 martini lunch".

His opponent, Gerald Ford, in a 1978 speech to the National Restaurant Association, responded with: "The three-martini lunch is the epitome of American efficiency.

[15] Comedian George Carlin once commented that the crackdown on the three-martini lunch "shouldn't affect the working man's two-joint coffee break".