An Irishman walked into a bar in
Dublin, ordered three pints of Guinness, and sat in the back of the room,
drinking a sip out of each pint in turn. When he finished them, he returned to
the bar and ordered three more.
The bartender asked him, "You
know, a pint goes flat pretty quickly after I draw it. It would taste better if
you bought one at a time."
The Irishman replied, "Well,
you see, I have two brothers. One is in America, the other in Australia, and I'm
here in Dublin. When we all left home, we promised that we'd drink this way to
remember the days we all drank together."
The bartender admitted that this
was a nice custom and left it at that.
The Irishman became a regular in
the bar and always drank the same way. One day, he came in and ordered two
pints.
All the other regulars in the bar
noticed and fell silent. When he came back to the bar for the second round, the
bartender said, "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to
offer my condolences on your great loss."
The Irishman looked confused for a
moment then a light dawned in his eyes, and he laughed.
"Oh, no," he said,
"Everyone is fine. I've just quit drinking."
