As a kid I played piano. Then when I got to college I began studying again. Before my piano juries in 1963, I was very nervous. Back then I was terrified to perform anything — even to make a speech in a class. I always had to get just the right amount of alcohol in me. Even if it was a morning class.

My piano teacher, Mr Lundquist, held the practice for juries in his large comfortable office. He had a studio grand piano and a number of couches and easy chairs. I didn’t know in which order he was going to want to hear me — there were ten of us — but he assured us we would just have a nice relaxed time. I brought coffee in a small thermos. Naturally, there was brandy in it.

I think I went up third. I played the Mozart Fantasia in C Minor. I’d paced my drinking just right and I did very well. But I think by the time the whole session was over it was clear I’d been drinking. Mr Lundquist reminded us what to wear, how to enter the stage, and in which order we’d be performing for the full-up juries the next day. As I left, he stopped me and said, “Good work, Fred. But tomorrow, one thing: no Dutch Courage, okay?”

I don’t think I responded in any way. I did, however, resist drinking before the juries. And I recall that somehow I survived. I must have done well — I got a B+ in the class and he was a tough grader.

I was reminded of all this today when I watched “An Education.” Jenny had just caught her “older man” fiancee in a big lie. He was already married and had children. She and her parents were waiting for him to come in from the car because he had some splaining to do. Her father looked out the window. “What’s he doing out there, Jenny?” “It’ll be a minute,” she said, “he’s having his Dutch Courage.”

The use of nationality, race, and religion as ironic modifiers of a quality, is probably as old as civilization. Generally it’s snotty, degrading, or downright hostile. Some are just funny and you really wish you’d been there when they were first coined. I like the ones with sexual overtones — Greek Love, French Ticklers, Spanish Fly. Vietnamese Basket Fucking.

Back to Dutch Courage. Jasper Schuringa, who tackled the underwear bomber on Christmas, is from Holland. If the airlines make a rule not to serve drinks during the last hour of flight, who’s going to have the courage to tackle the next bomber.