Whisky is ruining my health. What I mean by this is I am staying up to watch educational videos on Youtube about the stuff.  I’ve discovered a wonderful fellow, “Ralfy” by name, who teaches and reviews whisky, scotch, and bourbon. He both knowledgeable and entertaining – a sort of Dame Edna from Edinburgh.

I am thoroughly bewitched by his Scottish accent and woofy demeanor. As a consequence, when I should be sleeping I am staying up listening to whiskey reviews and drooling at the fellow.  I am not too alert in the day time, and serves me right.  If a patient reported such awful sleeping habits, I would crown him.

Ironically I haven’t had much scotch, whiskey or bourbon, but I sure can identify the labels and tell you the data.  Someone often calls me “Dr. Smartypants who reads a lot of books” and learning about brown booze is no exception.  Last weekend I was running around Total Wine photographing bottles and their price tags.  Sometimes I can be quite dense; I was pleased I recognized the labels of several fancy bottles, yet I hadn’t connected the dots J&B and Cutty Sark are scotch. Who knew? I’ve only seen the labels all my life.

I am all ready for my trip to Canada next month viz. the types of Canadian whiskey I want to (finally) try.  My list included Alberta Premium, Forty Creek, Collingwood, and White Owl (no rubbish indeed!).

Yesterday at the bar (or pub as I call now call it) I tried the house scotch “100 Pipers”, which dear Ralfy hasn’t gotten around to in his video reviews.**  Like a pro, I held it up to my nose and smelled it three times, explaining to Someone all about the subtle aromas until he told me to knock it off and quit playing around and just drink the damn thing.

With his help I’ve organized a list of ‘Things to Try’, which is now a very long list indeed.  Some of the stuff is unbelievably expensive (who knew scotch was so popular?), so I better not go through the list too quickly, or I will be broke or a drunkard in no time.

**It was fair.