Heh, I've spent 95% of my life living in Oxford, I got pretty used to "excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Oxford University?"
What sort of thing are you talking about with the "knocking back.."? For most people the first time you drink any whisky is like that, for many so is the first time you drink beer.
It's not a dumb thing, just lacking a piece of information. Oxford University, and Cambridge too, is not a campus university, it is spread out all over Oxford. When you're stood somewhere near the centre of town (and the centre of Oxford isn't really that big) - which is where most tourists ask the question - chances are if they look around 40% of the buildings will be part of the university, and another 40% will be buildings owned by the university, or by a college, and rented out for profit.
40% is a random figure and probably an exaggeration, but here's a map of the centre of Oxford (i.e. Oxford without suburbs) showing university buildings and colleges in red: http://www.planetware.com/i/map/ENG/oxford-map.jpg (note also how the majority of green spaces are owned by colleges for sport, as well)
Edit: looking closer at that map I see some missing buildings that should be on there, and at least a couple that are smaller than they should be. But I don't know the whole university well enough so maybe there are also some shown too big, or some that shouldn't be on there at all.
Same with vodka, there are vodkas out there that aren't horrible to drink.
In response to excuse-me, personally I drink nice scotch when I want to enjoy a drink, but if I'm drunk and getting drunker, why waste money on something good when I'm not going to appreciate it?
What sort of thing are you talking about with the "knocking back.."? For most people the first time you drink any whisky is like that, for many so is the first time you drink beer.