The Hooch Monger

Some years ago, Reader's Digest had a running feature called "It Pays to Increase Your Word Power," or something like that.  Possibly the magazine continues to jack up its readers' vocabularies; we don't know, because Pointless Digressions now gets only the National Enquirer and the Watchtower.

However, we do want to help our viewers increase their word power, and so we offer this word de jour:  "hoochinoo."  Hoochinoo is a distilled liquor made by a Tlingit tribe named--wait for it--Hoochinoo (also spelled Hutswunu). Hu nu? 

And, of course, the word "hooch" is derived from "hoochinoo," although how this term became part of the jargon of bootleggers in Saskatchewan and Chicago remains a mystery.

Which brings us to the quote of the day, from that well-known philosopher W.C. Fields:  "A man has to believe in something.  So I believe I'll have another drink."