Richard Dooling

Author, novelist, Wall Street Journal contributor.

I Would Prefer Not To, a quarterly miscellany, subscribe at site.

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

@MillieMarconnni Here's the complete text at wikisource

https://t.co/ZS9rQPlKRS

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

@ihtesham2005 So handwriting leads to brain connectivity and then disconnectivity when you have to type it all in later?

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

@walterkirn He's got a lots of good ones, like get into the scene late and get out early. But I always liked this one, because it makes you think about WHY it is true:

"Any time two characters are talking about a third, the scene is a crock of shit."

--David Mamet

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@KBAndersen Revisit Lincoln, NE on your next Omaha trip. You'll have your pick of Pho restaurants and the best Bahn mi ever.

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

@anthony_schutz We do the same with a Tacoma and a SmartCap. It's crowded in the back, but better than having to leave the campground when they close it to all but "hard-sided" vehicles because of bears frequenting.

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

Sounds like what's needed here is a refresher on the "If by whiskey" speech.

Passed in 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution repealed Prohibition, but States still had the right to restrict or ban the sale of alcohol, resulting in a patchwork of laws, some of which still exist today (no booze sales on Sunday before noon, on election day, or what have you). The last state to repeal prohibition was Mississippi, in 1966.

From 1933 to 1966, alcohol was a political hot potato in Mississippi, frequently argued to no one’s advantage. In 1952, a young Mississippi lawmaker named Noah “Soggy” Sweat worked for more than two months on a speech he delivered about alcohol, specifically, whiskey, and whether it should be legalized in the state of Mississippi.

Reproduced here for the edification of the electorate, is Noah Sweat’s infamous If-By-Whiskey speech, a tribute to politicians of all parties. What say you, Mr. Sweat, are you for or against whiskey?

If when you say whiskey you mean the devil’s brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

If when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman’s step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life’s great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

@anthony_schutz Well, it's a lot better than Sprinter money. It's not motels vs. Sprinter. It's more front country camping in tents vs. deluxe front country camping, with a hard-sided dwelling in case the grizz are about.

[Oh Canaduh @CanaduhOh]

If Jaws was filmed in Canada:

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

@amandafortini The script or the book is done. Now you need a great logline. That will take at least a week.

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@drhingram Lovecraft!

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@StephenKing Piggy and Jack are both great so far.

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@StephenKing Watching tonight!

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@katrosenfield Us old people would be a lot more tolerable if we could just learn to sit in a circle and stare at our phones.

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

@GiganticCranium Mac, inquiring minds need to know. Did you see Sirat? I would love to hear a sound guy's impression. I just watched it at home on a Bose sound system, but wow. https://t.co/sAYRxeJHfq

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

@ASFleischman @katrosenfield Definitely one of those you can't unsee.

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@drhingram The Cat People (1982) Nastassja Kinski

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@amandafortini @Marcela252016 Fern

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

Last day for Critical Care kindle ebook freebie!

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

If you have a Kindle, my first novel, Critical Care, is free for four days. From today, Thursday, to Sunday, 3/29.

https://t.co/c8B2TYcO5a

[Richard Dooling @RichardDooling]

If you have a Kindle, my first novel, Critical Care, is free for four days. From today, Thursday, to Sunday, 3/29.

https://t.co/c8B2TYcO5a