The Aegrotat

To round off the impromptu 'Cocktail Week' here on the Barstool, I give you another of the strange experiments from my student days.

This one was an invention of my friend - and very occasional commenter on these pages - "Mr A".

The recipe was very simple (and had a rather musical quality to it, making it easy to remember - or difficult to forget!): vodka, Pernod, pineapple juice. In roughly equal quantities, I think; and - daringly! - served in a martini glass.

On paper, it really didn't seem like it should work at all. Yet, strangely enough, the flavours complimented each other rather well and the mixture proved to be dangerously palatable.

Of course, it didn't really matter what was in it or what it tasted like - it was an absolutely brilliant name, one that could hardly be bettered for a drink to fuel irresponsible student hedonism. 'Aegrotat', you see, is the Latin for "he/she is ill", and is used at Oxford University (and Cambridge?) for a medical certificate vouching for a student's inability to sit Final Exams for health reasons. If the student's tutors are supportive, the University can award a degree on the basis of this sick-note alone - although I think it only has the status of a bare 'Pass' degree, so isn't really of any value; it is one of the University's more antique traditions, and I imagine it is seldom if ever invoked these days; most students would surely choose to re-sit their Finals at a later date.

A great name, then, for a student cocktail. Overindulgence in The Aegrotat might well have jeopardised our ability to show up for Finals.

In fact, on one occasion "Mr A" threw an end-of-term party in his rooms on the Quad...... on lunchtime of the last Friday of term. I had my final tutorial of the term at the end of that afternoon, and I still had to do some preparation for it. I really shouldn't have accepted "Mr A's" invitation - but I never could resist a party. I really should have tried to be more moderate in my consumption - but I never did have much self-restraint when it came to alcohol. And, of course, daytime drinking hits you much harder. And The Aegrotat - making its debut that day, I think - was rather stronger than I had realised (although I suppose the name should have served as warning enough). I only stayed for an hour or so, restricted myself to 3 or 4 drinks - still more than enough to get me decidedly squiffy. I then whizzed off to the Wellington Square Classics Library to return a few books and put the finishing touches to my essay. Alas, I put my head down on the desk and lapsed into a stotious slumber for 3 hours....... completely missing the tutorial.

That was not by any means the only tutorial I missed in my time at Oxford (I was very far from being a model student); but it was, to my mind, the best excuse I ever had for missing one.