I’ve heard that in the training of men in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police headed for duty in the Northwest Territories, there comes a time when the prospective officer is given a stout, sealed wooden box marked OPEN ONLY IN AN EMERGENCY . The usual response is, “What’s in it?”

The trainer says: “Let me set the scene. You are stuck; your transport—horse, dogs, canoe, tractor, whatever—has quit. You are alone in a cold NO PLACE . That is when you open this. Inside you will find some bottles and glassware. You are puzzled and very worried. As you are opening the bottles and preparing to pour their contents, over the hill, or across the snow, will come another man. He will yell: ‘Not too much vermouth!’ And you are saved.”

Keep up the good work.