Don’t leave the house without an Irish coffee in hand. That’s the advice of the newest old-person-drinking internet sensation.
“I’ve had a shot of whiskey in my coffee every morning for 100 years,” Mariano “Pops” Rotelli told Georgia’s Newnan Times-Herald on his 107th birthday party. “I went to the doctor three times in 100 years. He’s dead. I’m still living.”
When you live to 107, you can say whatever savage thing you want.
It doesn’t even matter which whiskey it is. Rotelli said he’ll drink whatever his son-in-law Bill Tyre buys for him, but it’s usually Jim Beam Black — a bourbon made in Kentucky.
Rotelli also advised to make every day a holiday (starting off the morning right helps), and to never worry (again, the whiskey coffee doesn’t hurt here). Rotelli was born in Pennsylvania to immigrant parents from Italy. He had four brothers that he went into the produce distribution business with, and he’s outlived them all.
Rotelli is far from the only centenarian to live and not die by booze. Let us not forget Antonio Docampo García, who lived to 107 after drinking two bottles of wine for lunch and two bottles of wine for dinner most days of the year. Pro tip: García also took his breakfast with a shot of Brandy.
Then there’s the 103-year-old Mildred Bowers, who advised everyone to “have a beer, doctor’s orders.” Not enough examples? Well, don’t leave out Nancy Lamperti, who made it to 101 thanks to wine.
You’re seeing the pattern, right?
It definitely doesn’t work for everyone. Genetics can be a crazy thing and moderation is key (García’s an outlier here). But who’s really complaining about a health anecdote that encourages a daily morning dose of whiskey and coffee?
