Whiskey?!

Yesterday I told stories at an English immersion school in Familleureux, here in Belgium. I had four performances before lunch, under the influence of jetlag, but it went well all the same. In the second set, for the youngest children, I told Robert Munsch's story Mortimer. In this story, Mortimer doesn't want to go to sleep. Everybody in his family goes upstairs to tell him to go to sleep. After each try, they go downstairs for a nice cup of... I wait for the kids to tell me.

Yesterday, I said, "Mortimer's father sat down in the living room with a nice cup of..."

One of the teachers called out, "whiskey!"

Some days, it's hard to compose myself after a moment like that, but I did. I laughed about it with her afterwards.

On a serious note, this would never, ever, ever happen in the US. Occasionally a kid will suggest beer or wine, but a teacher would never suggest whiskey. Is it just because we live in politically correct times, or is it the long streak of puritanism?