Jeffrey Tucker lauds the morning drink. Link. Excerpt:
It turns out that in the sweep of history, when water was not always safe and orange juice rarely accessible, this practice of morning drinking was the norm for all classes in society, and remained so for the upper classes far into the modern age. We forget that coffee and tea are relatively modern by comparison. In the middle ages, the typical British breakfast always included a mug of ale or wine.
In the South today, the tradition seems to bypass the middle class completely and last only among the truly well-formed working class blacks and upper class white aristocrats. A maintenance man I knew would never touch the "government's liquor" but he would never start a day without a nice swig of his favorite moonshine.
I tried it once and it took two days for my lips to feel normal again! But he managed it quite well, worked hard, and had a great life.
Eric Scheske, too, has commended it, writing about C.S. Lewis:
To the average man, Tuesday morning drinking sessions are outrageous. Tuesday, after all, is a far cry from the weekend, the “proper” time for drinking. Tuesday morning drinking interferes with one's pursuits and ambitions; morning beer makes you drowsy; spending time in a tavern in the morning takes away some of the most productive hours of the day.
But Lewis didn't care because he didn't care about ambition and the efficient use of time. The Tuesday morning beer sessions were good. His friends were good. The beer was good.
And so he went.
And drank.
And had fun.
Link.
"Those great men Marlowe and Jonson, Shakespeare, and Spenser before him, drank beer ar rising, and tamed it with a little bread." Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome.
