Cheers! ... Then again, it's not exactly happy hour, is it?

The botched execution-by-injection yesterday in Oklahoma has once again spotlighted the arguments for and against capital punishment and the means by which we carry it out. Those against the practice say it constitutes the cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Constitution. Those in favor of it contend there's no justice without it and any suffering experienced by the condemned is the last thing we should worry about.

The core issues promise to occupy us for some time to come. I have a more immediate, and admittedly superficial, request. It has to do with the combination of drugs that is supposed to anaesthesize and then kill the convicted.

Could we stop calling it acocktail?

What we're talking about is a fatal formulation, a terminal tonic, a hellacious highball. If we're going to call it a cocktail, why not call the witnesses guests, the guerney a chaise lounge and the event itself the last call?