No excuse:
This guy stepped on his crank big time
.
I am also thirsty and had many, many short lay-overs/night stops but never touched the bottle like he did. Not a legal rest either, just a few hours between flights.
Suicidal to hit the booze then.
Party if you must, but stick with 24+ hr night stops.
Cargo was best, 3 days or even 2 weeks in one city and you go Honky-Tonking with tons of time to sober up and rest good before the alarm clock went off before the next flight.
No jet-lag either because you acclimated to the local time.