Drinking from a flask is something I've mentioned before that looks appealing to me and I've been thinking of taking it up.

Reading Hardboiled Pulp Fiction and watching old movies, I guess has done it to me. Those tough guys always had one at the ready to steady the hand after ventilating a guy with lead.

Here the Flu had been going around real bad. I've had it already. I'm always the first. Now my brother picked up the bug. He was in bed and I was in my room reading reviews about a new documentary on filmmaker Derek Jarman when my sis-in-law barged in wanting me to go down to the local gas station to get a bottle of bourbon.

"Really? In this cold?" I asked knowing it was in the 20s.

"He wants to make a Hot Tottie, it'll make him feel better."

"What kind? I don't drink, so I doubt I'll get the right thing..."

"He said get anything but, Canadian, Jack, Ten High, George Dickel, Wild Turkey, Southern Comfort, and no Fighting Cock and not a big bottle." She relayed the info that I knew I would forget.

"Here's 10 Bucks," she adds.

In the freezing cold I drive down to the gas station and inside looking at the bottles, I'm lost. And I look lost.

Two women are working the place and they offer help.

"Isn't it just crazy to send the nonsmoker to get smokes and the nondrinker to get the drinks?" the older lady says.

I go through everything they had that I can remember he didn't want and that leaves me with Jim Beam. I get it.

Back at the house my brother takes some tea, some honey and a couple of spoons of Jim Bean and heats it up in the microwave. He gives me a cup.

It's really good! In fact, I LOVE IT!

He feels better and I feel better.

"I'm going to try it without the tea and honey now." I said pouring a couple of squirts in the empty cup.

Slamming it back, I felt I wanted to spit it out in a real bad way, but took it like the backwoods-man-child I am. My face made strange move that pulled muscle and cramped up.

The two of them laughed really hard, too hard at my pain.

"This can't be the stuff those old guy drank out of their flasks?"

"They drank even harder stuff!" my brother said.

Watching "Reign of Fire" on DVD the other night, there was a scene where Matthew McConaughey, who's been drinking throughout the film from a flask you just know has the hard stuff, passes it to Christian Bale who takes a swig and spits it out screaming, "Jesus! It's water!"

I might need to just do the water in a flask thing.