Pimms during wartime

In answer to the heat and to the dire headlines out of the Mideast, Mr & Mrs P prescribe Indian food and plenty of cocktails:

For some reason, dining on tandoori, naan, and cucumber raita while Israel and Beirut burn brings out the Winston Churchill within. Frankly, this war calls for a drink and given the potential of nukes soon being deployed, the bigger the drink the better. Since the temperature here is expected to soar over the 95 degree mark, you just don't have to wear the classic Winston Churchill swiss dotted bow tie when doing so…

Now, contrary to what E.M. Forster would have you think, there really was a gentlemen's code to life in the British Raj. Only a few gentlemen had enough social cache or a complete lack of social cache to wander about India with enough liquor in their veins to kill any malaria-carrying mosquitos on contact. The rest of the English did observe the knife-edge distinction between drinking and being drunk. Extreme heat or being in a war is no excuse for ceasing to be a gentleman. If you choose to drink, please continue observing the knife-edge distinction of drinking and being drunk, even if you are a lady…

It has been Mr. P's and my experience that a pinch or in a time of war, a Pimms' cup made with Pimms, Schwepes ginger ale, ice and garnished with thin cucumber and orange slices or a decent IPA (India Pale Ale) are nice and refreshing openers to an Indian meal.

Here, the hot-weather fare has been jambalaya and Coronas.

While the picture above of Lord and Lady Curzon does not feature any cocktails, it does have pith helmets and a tiger, so Mr & Mrs P would, I think, approve.

Now for a bit of Jack Hylton…