What subject is more appropriate for the runup to the Solemn Feast of St Patrick than the price of whiskey? In a move which will please all partakers of the rare auld mountain dew, the Biden administration is dropping tariffs on Irish and Scotch whiskeys, which were 'collateral damage' in a dispute over aviation industry subsidies. Yeah, in order to punish the EU for unfair protections for Airbus, Trump made whiskey, imported cheeses, and olives more expensive... something that I considered a personal attack. For four months, the whopping 25% tariff on these products will be suspended as a more permanent solution is figured out.
A big strong man like me shouldn't be afraid of a little boom boom, so I always keep whiskey in the house. Since the pandemic began, and my tavern patronage pretty much ended, I haven't been drinking as much beer as I was accustomed to- bottles really are no substitute for a freshly drawn pint of draft beer. My regular drinking whiskey is Tullamore Dew, which is smooth as watered silk and sweet as mother's milk. When I'm not feeling so nationalistic, and a Scotch is welcome, there's always Balvenie single malt, and Glenmorangie (I'm partial to the port-barrel aged stuff). It'll be nice not to have to be penalized for drinking the Water of Life.
This being the runup to the Solemn Feast of St Patrick (which, like last year, looks to be shaping up to be a non-event, another casualty of the pandemic), I figure I'd post a video for the Pogues song Streams of Whiskey, in which Shane MacGowan dreams about meeting the poet/playwright/revolutionary Brendan Behan:
As Cousin Shane from the Old Country sang, 'there's nothing ever solved by a wet thing called a tear', not even a trade war. I've noted before that I would have no qualms about toasting Joe Biden, and would even sing Fields of Athenry for the man... now such a toast would be less expensive. Even better, I'd love to get Uncle Malachy and bonnie Sandy from the Bronx, and we could serenade the man properly.
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