O'Doul the Collie salutes American laborers

Weather prognosticator and labor spokesdog O'Doul the Collie took a break from his busy schedule to offer his words of wisdom related to the Labor Day holiday.

Roughly translated from Mount Baker resident Tony, O'Doul postulated: "Labor does all the wealth, right? How come we don't get to keep it? Somebody must be taking it away, because we ain't wealthy."

Tony took exception to the perception of Labor Day as the the end of summer and a reason to sell ski equipment and clothing. (Remember "Ski Bonkers" Labor-Day-weekend sales of the 1980s?) "People who think that way probably don't do much thinking, period," Tony said. "People should have a holiday, but people should remember that there are problems, things aren't right and you should fix them and kick butt."

As the Peach Margarita seems far too frivolous for Tony and O'Doul's Labor Day celebration, we offer an alternative cocktail for the holiday, the Boilermaker -- a workingman's drink in honor of trained craftsmen who create steel fabrications. We can guarantee with Joe Namath certainty that you would never see Tony sipping a peach margarita.

Boilermaker

• 2 oz. whiskey
• 10 oz. beer

Fill a shot glass with whiskey.

Drop the shot glass into a mug of beer.

Chug-a-lug.

Bully for Old Purdue.

Addendum: Tony was aghast that a recipe would suggest that an imbiber mix the beer and whiskey... much-less drop a shot glass of bourbon into perfectly good beer. He suggested that bloggers posted recipes simply to see if anybody read the item. Wikipedia offers this thought on the boilermaker: "Generally speaking, the Boilermaker is merely a glass of beer with a shot of whiskey served on the side. The shot goes down in one, and the beer follows, being sipped rather than quickly downed.”

People, it's beer and whiskey. Don't over-think the matter.