The wisdom of Humphrey Bogart

"I should never have switched from scotch to martinis."

Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957)

Wow, Bogart was born before Theodore Roosevelt was president. Didn't know that.

Anyway, those were Bogie's last words, by some accounts……he was no stranger to either of those potables, so the apparently ill-fated switch might have been closer to top of mind for him at the moment of passage than such a regret might be for you or me…..now, me, personally, I'd stick with martinis any day, right up to the last….although, to be fair, a last-minute changeover to manhattans would be a concept I could toy with, assuming I retain sufficient faculties for such rumination and could put my last thoughts into words….just in case, I'm mentioning right here that if I blink once, it means martini, two blinks mean manhattan…..no ice, just pour it out of the bottle..

Anyway, Bogart is one of my favorites, and not because The American Film Institute ranked him as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema (personally, I'm thinking Gregory Peck…). Bogie is high on my list for being Charlie Allnut in "African Queen," and for being Capt. Queeg in "The Caine Mutiny." As Mr. Allnut, he ultimately made sense of the inscrutable and found true love in all the wrong places….

as the despised Queeg, Bogart ultimately made the mundane all too inscrutable and opened others' minds to their own hearts, some of them not too lovely to look at….

Being Humphrey Bogart was a good role for him.

…and by the way, if it helps you in your personal journey in any way, Bogie's middle name was "DeForest".....go figure…..