"You have been poisoning this helpless angel with strong drink?" cried Lindsay Noseworth.
* * * * * * * * * *
Oh, pardon me! I guess even in 1893, people existed who can't understand facetiousness. Or maybe I'm the one who can't understand earnestness?! It is 1893, after all. Corn liquor was probably marketed as "the healthy way to put your baby to bed!" Lindsay might be ahead of his time in understanding that maybe you shouldn't be funneling high percentage alcoholic beverages down the throats of young children. That's what opium is for.
No, I've got to believe that, in this case, Lindsay has misinterpreted the tone of the statement. Merle seems a bit informal and jolly. He's just making a joke about his girl yelling "I need a drink!" the way an alcoholic adult would yell it whenever they enter a room. But Lindsay, whom I think I mentioned might be dealing with Asperger's (or I might have just thought it every time I read any of his dialogue), can't parse sarcasm or whimsical humor. He is the Spock insert character, after all.
"helpless angel"
All children are angels because they are innocent and good. Also they are helpless because they're so small and fragile and innocent and good. Unless that child is Punky Brewster. I bet the pitch for that show was, "Imagine this: a child who is not an angel nor helpless!" The collective gasps of the people in that meeting probably blew out a window.
"with strong drink"
Lindsay seems to be implying, with the use of the modifier "strong," that weak drink is acceptable and not at all a poison of helpless angels.
