Years ago I read a cartoon showing a doctor visiting a patient in the hospital. Doctor and patient were each smiling broadly and holding a wineglass, and an opened wine bottle was on the bedside table. As doctor and patient lifted their glasses as if toasting, the doctor said, "Mind you, only one doctor in nine recommends this."
I thought of that happy cartoon when I got the report that the very venerable Uncle Farmer has recovered sufficiently in the hospital, not to the point of being released, but to where his physician has allowed his family to bring him beer every day. His physician is sensible: first, because a beer or two in the hospital isn't going to lead his nonagenarian patient down the path of ruin; and second, because the malt and hops make the hospital food more palatable. Beer isn't what I would think of drinking if I were myself hospitalized, but it occurs to me that if I should be fortunate enough to pass my 80th birthday, I should lay in a supply of Bordeaux for my family to bring to me if I'm similarly institutionalized.