Drinking whiskey for medicinal purposes in old-time, and modern Phoenix
I'm not really a drinking man, but I keep some beer in the 'fridge in case friends stop by, and I keep a bottle of whiskey in the pantry for medicinal purposes, the way that people have done going back many, many generations. To our modern eyes the phrase "for medicinal purposes" seems ridiculous, and there seems to be a "smile and a wink" to the phrase, but it was a real thing, and it still is for some people, like me. It does require a bit of time-traveling to understand, so let's go. I've set the wayback machine to 1911, when this ad appeared in the Phoenix newspapers. And yes, physicians often did prescribe whiskey. But not in the way that we think of how people drink hard liquor nowadays. If the first thing that springs to mind for you is frat houses slamming shots, or drunks passing out on the sidewalk, I really can't blame you, but whiskey really was something that people used in time of sickness, often to comfort. Now let's be clear h