Feeling a little hangdog this morning? Overindulged last night? Bubbly? Booze? Any other “Killer Bs”? So you swear this is the dawning of a new day. It is a new year, after all.
And right on cue, here’s your surefire cure: Go to church.
In his weekly column last week, the Times’ John Tierney presents research showing that churchgoers have a greater degree of self-control than others. (I must be the exception to the rule.)

“We simply asked if there was good evidence that people who are more religious have more self-control,” Dr. [Michael] McCullough [a psychologist at the University of Miami]. “For a long time it wasn’t cool for social scientists to study religion, but some researchers were quietly chugging along for decades. When you add it all up, it turns out there are remarkably consistent findings that religiosity correlates with higher self-control.”

Yes, if you’d believed more devoutly, prayed more earnestly, perhaps you wouldn’t feel this way this morning. But grace is the only free lunch. Just hold the martinis.
PS: As today is a holy day of obligation, no better time to start.