h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My father, Aged Parent, swore by this cure for a cold. But he included an additional ingredient, which he claimed was essential - a bowler hat. You hung the bowler hat on the bed-post at the foot of the bed. Then you drank the hot toddies until you saw two bowler hats.

Oh wow, I wish I'd heard that before I worte the entry!

I come from a long line of believers in the Hot Toddy.

My Dear Old Nannie favoured single malt Scotch - a goodly amount in a glass. Add a huge teaspoon of honey - never sugar, it makes you cough. The honey, incidently, had to be on a silver spoon, and the spoon left in the glass to take up the heat. She always told us it would prevent the glass from breaking - don't know! Pour in boiling water out of the kettle. Then, the most important part - get into flannelette pj's or nightgown, crawl into bed, with an extra blanket, and sip your toddy. Curl up, sleep like a baby, and wake up considerably better.

Dad was a rum drinker - dark rum. His toddy would nearly knock you down. Really strong, made with the required honey and boiling water. He'd sit across the kitchen table from you and bully you till it was all gone, a good-night kiss on the forehead, and send you off to bed. Worked every time!

I prefer the Scotch (take after my grandma), and I mix it pretty strong. My son resorts to the same cure. The reason it works, I think, is part psychological - its worked for generations, and part the fact that it warms and relaxes, and makes you sleep. Just what you need to help your body fight off a cold.

My understanding and experience is that a hot toddy has little if any medicinal effect, but it makes you less concerned about the fact that you have a cold. This may in itself improve your speed of recovery, but it also has the added benefit of reducing the level of complaint and promoting sleep, which helps both the sufferer and anyone in the vicinity.

Plain whisky, as hot as you can take it, has absolutely no medicinal benefit, but 9at least for me) is easier to take than a hot toddy.

maybe this will remedy my cold. As my tag says hot milk and sugar is disgusting.