Ham on Wry

"ONCE AN ALCOHOLIC, always an alcoholic" was the meeting topic, prompting a newcomer to wax philosophic at great length from the point of view of reincarnation: "Was I an alcoholic in my previous lives? In some but not in others? Will I still be an alcoholic the next time I come back? And in the life after that? And hundreds of lives after that will I. . .?"