MANNERS & MORALS: Down the Hatch

I've drunk your health in company;

I've drunk your health alone;

I've drunk your health so many times,

I've damn near ruined my own.

This toast is a favorite with crusty old Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey. Last week such Halseyisms drew down the wrath of the Methodist Board of Temperance.

In a public statement, the Methodists noted that the Halsey memoirs, written with the help of Journalist J. Bryan III and serialized last summer in the Saturday Evening Post, showed the Admiral as a confirmed drinking man. He liked an occasional beer or Martini but his staple was Scotch and water....