Ehrenreich actually writes that "boilermakers" are native to her home town of Butte, Montana. This is such transparent nonsense that it reveals the extent to which Barbara remains out of touch with working class Americans, notwithstanding her decades of posturing to the contrary.

The "boilermaker" may be historically THE most common and widely imbibed hard drink of the American working class, particularly among those of Irish, Scots-Irish, German and other European descent -- but by no means always known by that name.

In fact, the most likely way it's been ordered for more than 100 years is as "a shot and a beer" or a "shot and a beer chaser." In the 50s when I was coming of age in a Connecticut factory town and the 60s when I lived in Manhattan, in every "working class" bar with a name like Clancy's or Blarney Stone or my uncles' place, Keenan's Bat and Grill, handily the most ordered drinks by the guys who frequented such places were bottles of beer, a shot of whiskey with a glass of beer, and "7 and 7" (a hi-ball of Seagram's 7 Crown Blended Whiskey and 7-Up). During my own heavy drinking phase in the late 60s, while I favored straight vodka or Canadian Club, when the closest bar was one of the Irish-themed blue collar taverns, I leaned toward a shot and beer myself, rather than appear out of step.

How one consumed the shot and beer was a matter of personal preference. Some downed the shot in one gulp and chased it with the beer. Others mixed the whiskey into the beer and sipped it. Those like me devoted purely to getting drunk fast -- would order a rapid succession of whiskeys to go with a single beer chaser.

Was this a regional thing in New York and New England? No, I recall clearly having no trouble getting the same drink in, among other places, Indianapolis and South bend, Indiana, Chicago, Milwaukee, West Virginia, and Kansas City.

Now as to calling it a "boilermaker," I can't say I know where the name comes from -- but it strikes me as sensible to assume it originally had something to do with the workers who made boilers, not copper miners (although the migration of hard-drinking Irish and others west on the railroads and into the mines would likely have spread the tradition to the far corners of the country).

Anyone with a library card at any library that subscribes to the OED can just look boilermaker where they will probably find something like: boilermaker "shot of whiskey with a glass of beer" is short for boilermaker's delight (1910), strong cheap whiskey, so called in jest from the notion that it would clean the scales from the interior of a boiler.

Hey, thanks for the word on the derivation. Makes a lot of sense, although I still suspect it has some link to the tens of thousands of actual boilermakers, arch-typical of blue collar guys in the hey-day of industrial growth.

Watching Hillary throw back that shot, it made me wonder about her own drinking habits. If it was in fact Crown Royal in the shot glass, and if she is a tea toddler, I would think it might effect her ability. Now, if she is a regular drinker, then not so much. It did make me wonder what she normally prefers to drink.

Since she was obviously pandering during this bar excursion, her choice of wiskey was also currious. Why would she choose a spirit distilled in Canada, and not an American spirit like Jack Daniels or Jim Beam. Is Crown Royal a local favorite in that part of PA.

I myself, don't care for Boilermakers. I like the taste of a good whiskey, and I love the taste of a good beer. Together, not so much.

For a truly delightful experience (one, however, you may have trouble remembering the next day) try a Chicago Boilermaker - drop a full shot glass into a beer. I think it was named for a town in Illinois. I'm not saying it's a good idea.

Also known as a "depth charge"