H.L. Mencken Interview from 1948

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"Q: Is there anything you would have done differently? A: "I would have done it in July." "

--Jeff Skiles - co-pilot of Flight 1549, From the film "Sully" at the NTSB investigation hearing on their forced water landing into 36° F water of the Hudson River.

By cvining Mon, 03/28/2016 - 17:26

Dad was a great admirer of Mencken and I was recently inspired to look up this interview with the man, made on June 30, 1948 a few months before Mencken died:

I was a teenager the last time I heard that interview, which I'd stumbled upon at the local public library. On hearing it again just now I am quite taken by how much influence it apparently had on me. Attitudes about hard work, religion, skepticism and even vocabulary. I still occasionally use the word 'ombibulous', a word of Mencken's invention meaning to drink any known alcohol drink.

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