I've been a wild rover for many a year and I spent all my money on whiskey and beer.

The title/lyric comes from a traditional Irish drinking song called Wild Rover, covered by the Pubcrawlers if you click on this link.

The grandkids of two Irish men had a conversation about drinking tonight. One was 16 and expressing her quite right views that no one too young should drink, but struggled to communicate it. The other, me, being a bit truer to our heritage in my life and trying to serve the opening of this girl's mind playing the devil's advocate (which is my favorite tactic) suggested that drinking itself wasn't inherently bad, but rather the choices people made while drinking. This suggestion didn't satisfy her nor make my point, or hers for that matter, any clearer.

We stopped the conversation when my dad called from Florida, beer in hand by a pool to brag about the weather.

And then I found this report on Yahoo News.

Hiccups Lead to Two Deaths

Wed Jan 25, 9:44 AM ET

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - A Colombian man accidentally shot his nephew to death while trying to cure his hiccups by pointing a revolver at him to scare him, police in the Caribbean port city of Barranquilla said on Tuesday.

After shooting 21-year-old university student David Galvan in the neck, his uncle, Rafael Vargas, 35, was so distraught he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide, police said.

The incident took place on Sunday night while the two were having drinks with neighbors.

Galvan started to hiccup and Vargas, who works as a security guard, said he would use the home remedy for hiccups of scaring him. He pulled out his gun, pointed it at Galvan and it accidentally went off, witnesses told local television.

"They were drinking but they were aware of what was going on," one witness said.

I'm not sure whose argument this supports-that alcohol is bad or that people make bad decisions while drinking. But we should at least all be able to agree that drinking with your buddy who likes to point his pistol at your head is always a poor choice.