Once upon a Christmas there was a great deal of pressure on Mr. Gosling.

Everything was going wrong that year. All of a sudden his factory went haywire. There seemed to be a shortage of products and the mixtures of liquor just weren't right. What would happen if there just wasn't any alcohol to sell for the holiday.

The factory had to throw out every single barrel of rum that they made. The bums were out back starting their festivities early with the faulty rum. One of these was a bum that was called Weatherbird.

This man really had nothing wrong with him. He was friendly to every one, never stole anything and he wouldn't even hurt a fly; but every Christmas he would try to get locked up just to enjoy the Christmas meal in jail. But this year was going to be a very different Christmas.

Weatherbird found one barrel of rum that didn't look or smell like the rest and he just had to taste it. When he was about to drink it Mr. Gosling came walking around the corner.

"Good day, Mr. Gosling!'' "What's good about it?''asked Mr. Gosling in a grumpy voice. "Maybe I'd be in a good mood like you if I was drunk all time, like you.'' "I doubt it very much,'' answered Weatherbird. He went on saying how miserable his life was and argued with Mr. Gosling that Mr. Gosling had the better life. Mr. Gosling and Weatherbird went on talking for a few more minutes and Mr. Gosling joined Weatherbird in the tasting of that mysterious concoction.

After a while they both started to notice that their appearances were starting to change. Weatherbird's hair started to go straight, his face was getting paler and all of a sudden he could feel his face getting a smoother shave. Mr.

Gosling started to notice that he was changing too. He even started to smell like he hadn't gotten a bath in a couple of years.

They both left thinking that they were just drunk and hallucinating. But the next morning Mr. Gosling, thinking that he was Mr. Gosling woke up on a bench in a park and Weatherbird woke up in a comfortable bed.

There was definitely something wrong and the two of them had no idea of what to do. Weatherbird knew that he wasn't going to miss this opportunity for the world. So for the next few days before Christmas he enjoyed the luxuries of his new home and took advantage of being in charge of a liquor company. He changed the whole factory around and ended up tasting all the liquor before it would be packed into cases. He had himself a good time.

Weatherbird was starting to miss the bum life and was tired of having to run things and having to be so busy and on Christmas day he really did miss having his annual Christmas dinner in jail.

Mr. Gosling was having a really hard time adapting to his new way of life. He was forced into becoming a drunk like the rest of his new friends. He spent his days staggering around the streets and nights trying to find a place to sleep. The end off his holiday season he ended up spending Christmas day in jail.

Of course this really did not happen -- the two just got really drunk and depressed, went to each others homes and woke up with very bad hangovers.

Weatherbird ended up in jail anyway for breaking into the Gosling's residence and Mr. Gosling got booked for drunken acts in the park.

This was just my way of saying that Bermudians are too reliant on alcohol in the holiday season and worse things than this happen because of it. Why drink and forget the fun times that you might have spent with friends and family on what's supposed to be a happy time of the year.