The bar is the male kingdom. For centuries it was the bastion of male privilege, the gathering place for men away from their women, a place where men could go to freely indulge in The Bull Session.

The three-martini lunch is the epitome of American efficiency.

Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.

Many people believe the more they pay for a wine, the better it is. But it went against my grain.

Some people spend the day in complaining of a headache, and the night in drinking the wine that gives it.

Champagne, if you are seeking the truth, is better than a lie detector. It encourages a man to be expansive, even reckless, while lie detectors are only a challenge to tell lies successfully.

On the name of her hangover cure: People kind of universally have a negative reaction to it. They think of Hootie & the Blowfish. Or blowing chunks. There’s also the poisonous sushi, so people tend to think, “Blowfish, that’s a weird name.” But people remember it.

I have drunk since I was 15, and few things have given me more pleasure. When you work hard all day with your head and you must work again the next day, what else can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like whiskey?

O City city, I can sometimes hear Beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street, The pleasant whining of a mandoline And a clatter and a chatter from within Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the walls Of Magnus Martyr hold Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold.

New York is the greatest city in the world for lunch. That’s the gregarious time. When that first martini hits the liver like a silver bullet, there is a sigh of contentment that can be heard in Dubuque.