One of the characteristics of substance Puritanism is the cruelty that so often accompanies it. Think, perhaps, of the convict on death row denied that last cigarette in a ‘non-smoking’ prison, or the cancer patient kept from the relief he needs for the pain that consumes him. And then, via blogger Radley Balko, there’s this tale of the last days of Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. Dying of emphysema (Wilson was a lifelong smoker as well, entertainingly, as a fan of LSD) he asked for a couple of shots of whisky to help ease the approach of extinction. It was an entirely reasonable request, but it appalled his biographer, Susan Cheever, when she discovered it. Her “blood” she said, “[ran] cold.” She was “shocked and horrified” at this shocking example of backsliding.

Oh, come on.

The only thing about this story that makes my blood run cold is Cheever’s response to it.