Hi, I want to thank you all for all of your suggestions about my throat problems. I have made a list of your suggestions and followed many. While I have so far skipped booze, I do have a nice collection of rather interesting teas. I wanted to tell you what the Ear Nose and Throat Specialist said. He took a look, I won't describe how, and said that the cause of my discomfort was acid reflux, which had caused some of the tissue below the vocal chords to swell a bit. So I'm on (tasteless) meds. He said that this was so common that in his practice he had almost seen no other cause of this, and he said that acid reflux problems were very very common. So be warned. I will continue to follow (most of) your wonderful advice, and take my medicine. Rickey Holt.