Did you say Whiskey? Was: Simple Question about Looping Live

["Stephen P. Goodman" <spgoodman@earthlight.net>]

> > Great scenario!  I can hear the looping tumbleweed and the lonesome 
>wind
> > whistling past the saloon . . .  but everyone knows Bartender Kim
prefers
> > Scotch  :-)
> >
> Yeah, the old timers here ought to know Kim likes "Scotch" but all 
>whiskey
> drinkers ought to know that "Scotch" is American slang for "Scottish
> Whiskey".  We should also know that Scottish and Irish whiskey are made
from
> barley whereas the stuff from Kentucky and Tennessee is made from corn.
> Further, it is sacrilege to pour Scottish or Irish whiskey over ice,
whereas
> iced is about the only way to get the American stuff down.

I've come to wonder that it was this and not just a spelling error that 
made
the difference between "whiskey" and "whisky".  On a trip to Edinburgh 
three
years ago, my then-future wife and I would hit a number of pubs, most
notably the Deacon Brodie (named after the not-so-gentlemanly fellow who
actually inspired R.L.Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde"), where, before
our attendance of tours, would garnish ourselves by sampling the huge range
of scottish whiskey.  I had mine 'neat' with water on the side.  Having
stopped smoking tobacco some years ago, I'd finished getting my taste buds
back to working order, and had begun enjoying wine-tasting as a result; I
applied the same technique to whiskey.  There were some that made one wish
for a bit of the old tobacco though, as they were no doubt engineered to
have with a cigar.  Others were smoky enough on their own - 20 yr-old 
Ardbeg
for instance - to supplant the mere desire for a cigar.  Funny since, when 
a
smoker, I could barely manage a sip of whiskey without making That Face.
Now that I'm not a smoker (and alas even non-tobacco -wink- is out of 
reach,
dammit!) I find a bit of whiskey to be a needed bit of business towards the
end of some evenings.

In a GOOD bar in the US, you won't get a look like you've got antennae if
you ask for Scottish Whiskey.  I won't say no to Chivas though, and in a
slide can adjust to Grant's or Dewar's, though in comparison there is a 
huge
difference.  Even BELL'S is better, hoot mon.

By the way I've put a newly-restored piece on the Studios site, "Fever
Dream", which has nothing to do with Whiskey, well, at least THAT
intoxicant. :)

Stephen Goodman
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