Soggy Sweats Famous Whiskey Speech

Soggy Sweats Famous Whiskey Speech One of the craftiest orations in the history of American politics was the Whiskey Speech, delivered in April 1952 by a young Mississippi legislator named Noah S. Soggy Sweat, Jr. The House had been debating whether to finally pop the cork on Prohibition when Sweat (later a circuit court judge and a college professor) decided to demonstrate his prowess for talking out of both sides of his mouth. The occasion was a banquet at the old King Edward Hotel in Jackson. 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 devils 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 pu ts 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 gentlemans 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, lifes 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. Though were tempted to call Sweats speech a lampoon, that words etymology (from the French lampons, let us drink) may betray a certain bias. In any event, the speech stands as a parody of political doublespeak and an artful exercise in employing audience-flattering connotations. The classical figure underlying the speech is distinctio: making explicit references to various meanings of a word. (Bill Clinton used the same device when he told a Grand Jury, It depends on what the meaning of the word is is.) But whereas the customary aim of distinctio is to remove ambiguities, Sweats intention was to exploit them. His initial characterization of whiskey, addressed to the teetotalers in the crowd, employs a series of dysphemismsdisagreeable and offensive impressions of the demon drink. In the next paragraph he shifts his appeal to the wets in his audience through a far more agreeable list of euphemisms. Thus he takes a firm standon both sides of the issue. In these days of duplicity in the land of spin, we lift our hearts and our glasses to the memory of Judge Soggy Sweat. Sources Orley Hood, On June 3, Soggys Speech Will Come to Life, The Clarion-Ledger (May 25, 2003)M. Hughes, â€Å"Judge Sweat and ‘The Original Whiskey Speech,’ The Jurist (Vol. I, No. 2, Spring 1986)If by Whiskey, The Clarion Ledger (February 24, 1996)

Liquid Nitrogen Activities and Projects

Liquid Nitrogen Activities and Projects Are you looking for an activity or project with liquid nitrogen? This is the most extensive list of liquid nitrogen ideas youre likely to find: Make liquid nitrogen ice cream.Make Dippin Dots type of ice cream.Fill a whistlings include wine or soda. Youll get a cool fog effect, plus a cool drink.For a party or group, freeze graham crackers in liquid nitrogen. Wave the cracker around to warm it up a bit and eat the cracker. The cracker has an interesting texture, plus people eating crackers will be spouting clouds of nitrogen vapor. Miniature marshmallows also work quite well. The risk of injury from either food is quite low. Freeze a banana in liquid nitrogen. You can use it to hammer a nail.As a demonstration that even antifreeze freezes if its cold enough, solidify antifreeze using liquid nitrogen. Dip a carnation, rose, daisy, or other flower in liquid nitrogen. Remove the flower and shatter its petals in your hand.Use a squirt bottle of water to spray designs into liquid nitrogen vapor.Spin a tub of liquid nitrogen to create a vapor vortex. You can float paper boats or other lightweight objects in the maelstrom.Pour a cup of liquid nitrogen into about a liter of warmed bubble solution to produce a mountain of bubbles.Pour a small amount of liquid nitrogen into a Pringles can and pop the lid on. The vapor will (loudly and forcefully) pop the lid off.Break an incandescent light bulb (type with a filament). Turn it on in the liquid nitrogen. Cool glow!Bounce a lightweight hollow ball on a hard surface. Immerse the ball in liquid nitrogen and try to bounce it. The ball will shatter rather than bounce.Pou r liquid nitrogen onto weeds to kill them. The plant will die with no toxic residue or other harm to the soil. Examine the color change of LEDs under normal temperatures and in liquid nitrogen. The band gap of the LED increases at lower temperature. Cadmium red or cadmium orange- bandgap of Cd(S,Se)- are good choices.Foods high in water will break with a tinkling sound like glass when smashed. Orange segments are a good choice for this project.Insert flexible rubber or plastic tubing into a dewar of liquid nitrogen. The nitrogen will spray out the end of the tubing onto you or the audience, etc. so use care that you have protection on the hand holding the tubing and that there is enough distance at the top of the tubing for the nitrogen to vaporize before contacting with people. Although the tubing is flexible at room temperature, at liquid nitrogen temperature it becomes brittle and will shatter if hit with a hammer or whacked on a lab bench. If you twist the tubing around itself before putting it in the nitrogen, the tubing will uncoil itself as it thaws, in a sort of serpentine manner.