I get a lot of sore throats, partly because any middle school is a sewer of virulent germs, mostly from shouting to make myself heard over a babble of 7th-graders. Of course, when the students see me taking cough drops, half of them suddenly develop 'coughs' of their own and beg me to give them some. There is an easy way to prove that they are pretending: I offer them honey-licorice cough drops, which they invariably reject. Like olives and anchovies, honey-licorice cough drops seem to be an adult taste.