Notice the label Sig put on the tank at the head of the bed in the illustration for this column: Pajama Game
So in the event of fire, the kid is going to be doused with whiskey???
No, not fire water as in spirits, fire water as in, “don’t drink this, it’s for fighting fires and thus has been standing in this tank for months, and we never clean the tank either, I’m not kidding, don’t drink it”
Since it’s Slug, I’d guess that it’s a deliberate play on both meanings of “water to be used for fire” and “likker.”
Can I ask a serious question?
Would it be possible to get a cite on info in the first paragraph? Firefighters in my neck of the woods are particularly uncooperative, so I’d love to know who told Cecil decoration fires are 20 times more lethal than fires the rest of the year.
Cecil is allotted a limited space, so doesn’t usually waste it on cites: he’s not trying to write for academia, after all, but for the Teeming M’s. In this particular case, since I’ve been helping Ed a bit behind the scenes, I can refer you to FEMA – “Seasonal Nature of Fires” http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-236.pdf
Hope that helps.
Thanks!
Guess I’m getting used to the staff reports which have oodles and oodles of citations 
Given the publications I’d say it wasn’t the Teeming Millions, who I assume to be everybody except a select subset (us), but the Teeming Millions Who Care What Band is Playing At the Closest Bar. As a parent of three of them* I’d suggest Cecil doesn’t dumb it down enough.
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- Real conversation this evening:
Wife - I saw a champagne bottle in the recycling. What was that for?
- Real conversation this evening:
Me - After five years in junior college our oldest was celebrating being accepted at the least picky Illinois state university.
Wife - Sangamon?
Me - Okay, second least picky.