Hot Whiskey

When my wife was expecting our first child, we went back to visit friends in Graiguenamanagh, the village in County Kilkenny where we lived for a time. She caught a bad cold but was 6 months pregnant and didn’t want to take any medications. I took her to the kindly village doctor whom we used to see occasionally when we lived there. He listened to her concerns and snorted, “You Americans! You’re so uptight! Go down to the pub now and have a hot whiskey, and you’ll feel better straightaway.”