some after a hard day, or harder night, that they may recall there Tennyson, or Kipling, perhaps some temperance league scripture or who the heck cares, but I will remember the famous " if-by-whiskey" which refers to a 1952 speech by Noah S. "Soggy" Sweat, Jr., a young lawmaker from the state of Mississippi. "My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about 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. But, 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. This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise." …………………So the five us wake after not shunning our fishing, and find after a very brief respite of sleep, we are once again staring at puddles of Irish whiskey, in mugs that should hold nothing more than steaming hot black coffee. With the utmost effort, using only soft tones, over extremely dry tongues, calling out in various forms, we all pontificate on the evils of drinking, to which not one of the assembled prodigals will ever, never, not start a new day, given the chance, with the hair of the dog that bit him so hard last evening, because the teeth of hounds that laid us down like dirty dogs, as a group yesterday, were no less vicious. If you have to wake this hard, we all agree, in unison, we tried every lure in the boxes we brought, and man did we get skunked, drenched, bug bitten beyond imagination, and for what. So, we as mere mortal men, consoled ourselves, that and the remains of skin fragment's of not only sodden, but smoke smudged and chew'd flesh. We drown'd the bad day and we off to drown the badder morning. The trout whisperer
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None of the boat’s occupants, two adults and two juveniles, were wearing life jackets, officials said.