Thus Benjamin Pahović when he joined me at my table at his restaurant today. He knows that I have cut down my alcohol consumption considerably, but there was a glass of his wine next to my plate at lunchtime. By way of response, I mentioned that my mother would have a glass of wine with every meal, and without fail, but never between meals. I do not remember ever seeing her straying from this clever rule. This was her habit till the end, and she was ninety when she passed away. When I returned home, I checked this saying on the World Wide Web. It did not take me long to find it in a collection of old Venetian proverbs. As far as rules go, it is undoubtedly clever. And I would not be surprised to learn that it goes all the way back, when wine first appeared in the Mediterranean.