I realize now how you made 70k a year, John! NO Booze, NO News, NO backbiting. Joke! Another fine piece.

German/Irish ancestry, wow, there’s a thing! No wonder you like a drink! But in truth, it probably doesn’t matter where you’re from. Most cultures over the millennia have had some drug, either to stimulate them, or to simply numb them from the trials of life. Be it alcohol, tobacco, hash, coca, mushrooms, etc. Before mass trade and commerce, you got your hit from what grew near you. Northern Europe is perfect for beer/whisky. Southern Europe, wine/spirits. Northern Africa, tobacco/hash. S. America, coca/mushrooms. Far East, opium. All incorporated into daily life, especially as part of ritual. Wine in Christian ceremony, hallucinogens in Africa cultures, and so forth.

So what’s my point? I don’t really have one. I drink, and I drink quite a lot sometimes. But I live in France and work on a farm. When we finish work for lunch, we have wine with our meal, then we go back to work. It feels like the most normal thing in the world. Does it affect my work, or my own writing? Probably not.