Beer.

When I was a much younger man there was a short period, say 25-30 years, when I routinely drank a 6-pack or more of beer a day. For some reason, maybe because they frequently saw me with one in my hand, people decided that I had a particular attachment to beer. On my birthday and Christmas I could always count in getting some beer-related gift, like a book named "Great Beers of the World". That was long enough ago that I think I can confess now that I never even opened one of those books, nor used my other beer gifts - unless they actually contained beer.

The thing is, I didn't have a special affection for beer, I just liked to drink. I don't mean alcoholic drinks, necessarily, but anything: water, juice, cola, iced tea, beer, wine, whatever. I usually chose beer because it isn't too sweet and it's thirst quenching. Also, you can just drink it, gulp it down. It was very satisfying.

I didn't even know I was drinking a lot until I broke my elbow and the orthopedist asked me how much alcohol I normally consumed. I told him a 6-pack or so plus two or three shots of Wild Turkey 101 a day, and he said, "That's a lot!" I said, "It is?" I mean, I hardly ever got tipsy. I've only been truly drunk, Great White Altar drunk, about a half dozen times in my entire life, and that was usually because I'd skipped eating.

About 10 years ago everything suddenly changed. I stopped liking beer. Not only did it taste less good than it had before, but also I felt full and bloated after drinking even one. My beer consumption dropped faster than the stock market. I didn't drink more than a 6-pack every three or four months. People continued to give me beer gifts, but I kept telling them that I didn't drink beer anymore, and after a year or so they got the idea.

I had to find something to replace beer, of course, because I still liked to drink. Drinking a 6-pack of Wild Turkey 101 every day was out of the question, and I'd actually stopped liking it, too. So mostly I switched to diet cola, even though it's too sweet for my taste. At the end of a day I'd drink wine, mostly, with an occasional shot of vodka or something.

Then an odd thing happened: NuSTAR. I was back in New York State, the very first place I'd ever drunk beer (we loved a place in Manlius that sold 15-cent drafts). It was really hot and really humid and I wanted a beer. It was good. It didn't fill me up. I was home again.

So beer is back in my life, at a more reasonable level. On a really hot day I might drink three. I haven't really settled on which beer I prefer, since Utica Club seems to be out of the picture. Currently I have Old Milwaukee, but I like PBR, maybe better. I'll figure it out.

P.S. No beer gifts, please.