1 Jamie: {scooping up a cup of water from the subterranean river} First we need three parts of Mnemosyne water, to retain the memories we want...
2 Adam: And seven parts of Lethe water to erase the ones we don't want...
3 Jamie: And finally four parts of top shelf single malt Scotch whisky.
3 Charon: What's the whisky for?
4 Adam: To make it taste better. Do you know how many dead souls have been in this water?
4 Jamie: We do.

Whisky is an alcoholic drink distilled from various types of fermented grain, the primary ones being barley, rye, and wheat, sometimes malted (or allowed to germinate and then dried).

One of the most interesting things about whisky, at least to me, is that the word is spelt differently depending on where the drink comes from. Whisky from Scotland is called, naturally enough, Scotch whisky. Whisky from Ireland, however, is called Irish whiskey. Note the appearance of an "e" in the name. Whisky from most other parts of the world is called whisky, except for whisky from the USA, which is called whiskey (with an "e"), except when it's called bourbon, or maybe rye.

Whisky, whiskey, whisky, whiskey. Dang, now it doesn't even sound like a real word.

---

2019-07-27 Rerun commentary: A trick I learnt to remember how to spell whisky/whiskey is that:

• Whiskey (with an "e") is produced in countries with names with an "e": Ireland, United States.
• Whisky (without an "e") is produced in countries with names without an "e", the main ones of importance being: Scotland, Canada, Japan, and (at least for me) Australia. There are a few exceptions to this rule, for countries such as Denmark and Sweden, but these are relatively minor whisky producers.

Whisky was also the name of my grandfather's cat. Both because it was ginger coloured, and I believe he actually gave it a few drops of whisky every now and then. (A brief Internet search tells me in no uncertain terms that this is not safe for cats, but it was the 1980s - I'm sure he had no idea.) Being an Australian cat, of course it had no "e" in its name.