The Demon Rum

Yesterday's New York Times featured a 'Letter From Britain' discussing the British culture of booze. Since this article is behind a pesky wall o' registration, allow me to present to you the highlight:

Drink also featured heavily in the life of George Brown, a Labor foreign secretary in the 1960's, who is once said to have stumblingly invited a guest in flowing purple robes at a reception in Peru to dance. But it was not to be.

"First, you are drunk," the guest is said to have replied. "Second, this is not a waltz; it is the Peruvian national anthem. And third, I am not a woman; I am the Cardinal Archbishop of Lima."