I am by no means promoting the consumption of alcoholic beverages, but everyone has to unwind after a day in surgery, and some, to quote an old line, find that liquor is quicker. Personally, I don't have an extensive knowledge of libations, but a recent cocktail-hour conversation with my OR friends Haley and Bird opened my eyes to the multitude of concoctions available at day's end. Given the drinks' colorful names - some printable, some not - I realized that whatever their inventors were thinking, it was possible that they had surgical nursing in mind. Cheers!

• In-and-out Martini. Those nice, quick and simple outpatient surgeries.
• Stinger. "You're just going to feel a little pinch and burn." Right. Why don't we just tell it like it is? "This is going to hurt like H-E-double hockey sticks."
• Fuzzy Navel. Prepping that patient who has apparently never washed his bellybutton. It literally takes a hemostat to get all the gunk out.
• Crown Royal. Raise a glass to the small-town "celebrity" surgeon.
• Old Fashioned. The good ol' country surgeon who's still clamping, cutting and tying instead of slicing, dicing and frying.
• Lounge Lizard. You see her when you arrive for your shift. You also see equipment left in the hallways, scattered suture and cases that need pulling.
• Boilermaker. The staff member who's got her nose in everyone's business and who's frequently stirring up trouble.
• Bloody Mary. The patient undergoing an emergency lap, who is also on Plavix.
• Screwdriver. The patient coming in minus the tip of his finger. He should have stuck with the manual tools and foregone the power saw.
• Rusty Nail. That infected foot should have come in five days ago.
• Aggravation. Dr. Crown Royal's phone is ringing. The tech is asking you for more 3-0 pop-offs. Anesthesia wants another LR. And the supervisor is calling to ask if you can get yourself out to lunch when you finish this case.
• Fine wines. (Or, rather, "Fine whines.") From the surgeon with little tolerance for anything other than that which involves him and his tiny little personal space.
• Frog in a Blender. The politics at some facilities you've worked at.
• Hurricane. The atmosphere in your facility when you have three or more rooms going and an emergency hits the OR doors.
• Kamikaze. Sometimes you just prepare yourself to expect the unusual.
• Corpse Reviver. Have you ever seen this placeon Friday afternoon after a 60-hour week?
• After Five. "It's always five o'clock somewhere."
• Seven and Seven. The shift you end up working, more often than not.
• Moonshine. Walking out to the parking lot after a 14-hour day.
• Mind Eraser. Trying to get your brain to turn off after the day's events.
• Southern Comfort. The traveling nurse from Arkansas who adopts you as her friend, like it or not.
• Everclear. Your role in the OR.
• Absolut. It's all or nothing in surgical nursing. You can't fake it or do anything halfway.