0:00 [Music] Who are you? And where are you going? What do you [Music] want? Hello and welcome to [ __ ] Jiggers's Place. Jigger's place. I'm your host, Kevin Deml, and we're here every other Thursday at 5:00 PM Pacific time to sit back, have a cocktail, and
0:35 talk about all the things that have nothing to do with our financial lives. So, we talk about great books, we talk about relationships, we talk about values and God. Uh, it's it's pretty wide open. This really is in the spirit of the original way to wow show where we talked about we and had guests from all three pillars of attainment and all nine realms within those pillars. So, uh, welcome. It's we're heading toward the end of the week. It's Thursday afternoon
1:10 and as was build in the social media this this afternoon or evening if you're on the east coast I'm going to be talking about one of if not the greatest author in American history Mark Twain. So as you'll see in a few minutes I one of abs my absolute favorite authors. I've read many of his books starting from when I was a child and continuing through being an adult. And uh I think a maybe a month or two ago, I did a show
1:46 about 19th century literature with my friend Steve Fox and I talked about George Elliot and Thomas Hardy uh and uh Jane Austin. And it occurred to me, while those are all fantastic authors, if someone has if you haven't delved into 19th century literature before, uh, while I think they're very accessible, probably the most accessible writer of 19th century literature is, uh, Mark Twain. And so I I decided to do
2:22 a show and talk about his his life and his books um as a way to potentially tempt you into trying out uh something that maybe you you haven't ever tried out or maybe you know haven't tried out since high school when you were forced to. And so in honor of uh today's show's topic, Mark Twain, uh with my uh my trusty assistant, ChatGpt, we created a cocktail called the Twain, and it's it's in a southern um a southern mode. And as
2:57 such, it's it's a bourbon cocktail. Now, many people think that bourbon only comes from Kentucky. That's actually not the case. Although the vast majority of bourbon is made in Kentucky, bourbon can be made anywhere in the United States, it what constitutes bourbon is that it is at least a 50% corn mash. It's aged in new uh new char newly charred oak barrels. Uh and and I think there's a specific time it has to be uh aged as
3:33 well. And it has to be made in the United States. So you can't make bourbon in say Europe in the same way that you cannot make champagne here in the United States because champagne comes from the Champagne region of France. So I'm going to be using my my sort of rack bourbon. Um this is Woodbridge uh I'm sorry, Woodford. Um it's it's just a great allaround bourbon. I love it a lot. It's one of the reasons why um it's one, you know, one of the benefits of flying American, not a plug for American
4:08 Airlines, but but they serve uh they serve Woodford and United serves Buffalo Trace, which is also a very nice bourbon. So, that's the bourbon we're going to use. And then we're going to use Luxardo Bitter Bianco. Okay, this is a uh a bitter lur. Okay, Luxardo, classic Italian uh distiller. And then we're going to use some orange liquor. I'm going to use Quantro. This This is from France. Far and away my favorite uh uh orange lure. And then the recipe, if you
4:45 got the email, calls for some lemon juice. I realized right before showtime I was out of lemon juice. I'm going use a little lime juice. You know, in the cocktail world, you can always make some substitutions. It may not taste exactly the same. Um, but you know, it's always fun to to uh experiment. And then for bidters, I'm going to use Bitterman's Boston bits. And uh the reason I'm using Boston bits is is because Mark Twain traveled all around the United States um during his life giving lectures and such. And uh I don't I don't have it here, but he made a couple of uh
5:21 delightful quips as he was want to do about Boston. And uh so you know adding a little Boston bitters to his cocktail will add a little bit of spice to it. So we're going to start out with uh two o and I've got my shaker here with ice. So we're going to start out with 2 oz of bourbon. And let's see where we going. Okay. There we go. Okay. So, we got our
5:57 bourbon. And, you know, I don't do all the flashy Tom Cruz in in cocktail type stuff. I'm just your run-of-the-mill guy who mixes cocktails and and uh you know, that that that for for most of us, I think that's that's just fine. Okay. Half an ounce of the Bitters Bianco Sarda. Then we're going to use a/4 ounce of uh the quantro, the orange liquor. Assuming I can get it open. There we
6:36 go. Has such a wonderful scent. Okay. And then we're going to use uh half half an ounce of the uh lime juice. If you have lemon juice, if you're making this along with me, half an ounce of lemon juice. Obviously, freshsqueezed is always better, but if you lead a busy life like me, you just may not have time to go and get fresh citrus fruit. Oops. That's That's the end of that. Okay, there we go. And then just uh two
7:14 dashes of Bitterman's Boston bits. And by the way, you don't have to have bittermans. You can always use something else. So, one, two. Okay. And we'll cover this up. And we're going to shake it. And of course, the reason for shaking is not just to mix the various liquids together, but it's also to let some of the ice melt. And a little bit of water
7:49 opens up the flavors, which is always good. You can see that it's the outside of the shaker is frosting already nice and good. You know, at least at least a good 20 seconds, 30 seconds even. Won't hurt. You know, again, professional bartenders, well they'll be they may be very very exact, but you know what? We're just looking to enjoy ourselves and so we don't have to be so we don't have to be so, as we say in Yiddish, medactic, so so straight. Okay, I have my coupe, which is my Oh, boy. Not
8:26 really ice forming on the outside. That's lovely. Okay. And there we go. Okay. We're going to give this a try. Oh, that's nice. Nice mix of flavors. It's getting warmer here in Los Angeles. It was in the low 80s. So, a nice cool drink is good. All right. I'll see you over on the couch.
9:23 Okay. Well, so here we are. Excuse me. I have to have have another sip of this cocktail. It's good. All right. So, I have a few notes about Mark Twain's life that I want to tell you about. Um, so first of all, Mark Twain was born Samuel Longhorn Clemens. Can you imagine? No wonder he
9:58 changed his name, right? On November 30th, 1835 in Florida, Mississippi. Okay, so he's a Mississippi lad. You may say, "I thought you said this was southern." Well, Mississippi is pretty southern. It may not be the deep south like Alabama and Louisiana and Mississippi and Georgia, but it's it's it's definitely the south. It has a southern vibe. Okay. He grew up um primarily in Hannibal uh Missouri, a Mississippi River town. Um that often that that later in his life inspired uh
10:34 many of his books. Um and then he left school at at age 12 after his father died and he worked as a printer's appreh apprentice. So he was around printing and books and such from a very young age and you say 12 years old. Wow. Look, you know, it wasn't unusual. He would have been would have been 1847 thereabouts. So, you know, children weren't required to stay in school until they graduated high school the way they are nowadays. So, he took on various newspaper jobs and he began
11:10 writing humorous articles as a young man. Um, in 1857, he became a Mississippi riverboat pilot. Um, and and that was an experience that deeply deeply impacted his worldview and his writings. Now, uh, if you've ever been to, uh, Disneyland or I I think there's also one in at uh, the uh, Magic Kingdom theme park at Disney World. There is a Mississippi stern paddlewheeler boat and it's you know somewhat similar to the one that
11:46 Mark Twain uh would have captive uh captained uh on the Mississippi River. So, uh, you know, this was already the age of sail was starting to wayne and certainly going up and down rivers. You had these, uh, steam engine powered paddlehe boats. And he he I'm sorry, he wasn't a captain. He was a pilot. Um, his pen name, Mark Twain, comes from a riverboat term meaning two fathoms deep. they would call by the Mark Twain and they would run out of line and that's
12:22 how they would tell how deep the water was to make sure that the boat wouldn't uh end up on a shaw um and and and you know stuck on stuck on the you know like a semi-submerged island or something like that. So after the Civil War um halted river traffic, he he traveled west. He worked as a minor and a journalist in Nevada and California. He gained national fame in 1865. So this would have been just after the Civil War ended with the publication of the celebrated jumping frog of Calaveris
12:57 County. It's a wonderful story and it preages the kind of humor uh for which Mark Twain became famous. And uh here's cheers to the uh the celebrated jumping frog of Calaveris County. So he traveled extensively. He gave lectures. He sent uh travel dispatches that increased his popularity. And in 1869 he published a book called
13:32 Innocence Abroad. Hopefully you can see that or the Innocence Abroad. And this was a a a humorous travalogue about his trip through Europe and the Holy Land. And and as uh as uh fond of I am as of Mark Twain, I actually haven't read this book yet. Um, this is one this I think this is the only book I have button by Mark Twain in my library um that I haven't read and I've been sort of saving it for a a special occasion. Um, and then in um 1870 he married Olivia Langden and they
14:10 settled in Hartford, Connecticut and they had four children. To the best of my recollection all four were daughters. Um, and uh, the the marriage between Mark Twain and Olivia Langden was a a a classic uh, tale of of romance. He he he deeply loved uh, his wife was very devoted to her um, and his daughters. So, um, he mo he wrote many of his most well-known works, Wall in Hartford, um, including
14:46 probably his two best known works, uh, Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Now, I know you you know, Huckleberry Finn has has proved uh somewhat controversial because uh one of the main characters in it is is a an enslaved boy named Jim. Uh and you know, frankly, from my perspective, I think it's better to know what's going on or know what's gone went on in the past in America than to sort of brush under the
15:21 table and pretend that it didn't uh happen. Um so I read both of these books uh as a probably a very early teenager. Um he became uh close friends with a number of literary figures including William Dean Howell uh Howells I should say who is also a fabulous 19th century author Ulissiz Srant who of course is the general who essentially uh brought victory to the union in the civil war or the war between the states if you prefer
15:56 and Booker T. Washington, the great um uh advocate for uh black emancipation as well as black education and the founder of the Tuskegee Institute. So, um in the 19 I'm sorry, in the 1890s, uh Twain suffered pretty serious financial trouble uh due to bad investments uh in including an sort of an ill- fated type setting machine. He he invested in evidently all kinds of crazy things um
16:31 most of which did not pay off. So um as a result of his financial uh troubles he undertook a world tour from 1895 through 1896 to pay off his debts which he eventually did in full. No no no uh you know um going bankrupt for for Mark Twain. Good for him. Um, as he grew older, his his work grew more cynic more sort of cynical and dark darkly satirical. Um, and he targeted subjects
17:06 like religion, imperialism, human nature. Uh, and and you know, uh, look, for those of you who watch the show, you know I'm traditionally religious. Uh, and you know what? I I I probably agree with a number of the criticisms uh that that Mark Twain made about religion in including the hypocrisy of uh some religious leaders. Right? So uh you know I think that if if you like me are a religious person I I I hope that won't um cause you to not want
17:43 to read uh Mark Twain. I think we can definitely benefit from uh you know the things that he said and they're said they're said with a sort of a biting humor um so that hopefully we can laugh at ourselves even as we parse through them and we uh and we know consider the lessons and perhaps take some of them to heart. So, if you've ever seen pictures of Mark Twain in the latter part of his life, he dressed in white suits and he had this
18:19 sort of uh public image of a a a grouchy grumpy sage, you know, of American Letters. Uh famously, I'm trying to think of the actor. There was an actor who um played Mark Twain in a stage presentation of him. Uh gosh, I can see him because he I can I can see the movie he did. One of my favorite movies with with Matthew Brderick. Um oh gosh, I can't remember the actor's name. Anyway, he wore the white suit. He had kind of a bushy bushy
18:54 white hair and and all of that. So very sort of iconic uh figure uh was Mark Twain. and and Mark Twain died um on April 21st, 1910, one day after Haley's comet pass. This is the same comet that appeared the year that he was born. And and I think we could reasonably conclude that um there there is a that that he was born and died on the appearance of Haley's comet. Um, you know, many of you may say, "Okay, it's it's just
19:29 coincidence." But for those of us with a God- centered view of the world, um, who who don't really uh believe in coincidence, per se, there's something there. Um, maybe a message. And and as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, he was widely regarded as the greatest humorist in American history. and and he's often called the father of uh American literature. Now there were authors who preceded him. Nathaniel Hawthorne, for example, who wrote the um Leather Stock Tales
20:05 uh and um uh I'm trying to think of um gosh, there the the the author who wrote The Scarlet Letter, Leather, First of all, it's leather stocking tales, not the leather stock, leather stocking tales. Um actually it's Nathaniel Hawthorne who wrote um uh The Scarlet Letter and uh oh gosh um the Leather Stocking Tales were written by see it's late in the afternoon and my
20:42 memory is failing me but but they they certainly predated Mark Twain but they did not have the breath of appeal that Mark Twain had. So I mentioned three of his books already. U The Adventures of Tom Sawyer written in se 1876, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that was written in 1885. Uh The Prince and the Popper written in 1881.
21:19 [Music] And uh Puddin Head Wilson was written in 1894. Another uh brilliant book and I I couldn't find my copy of it is a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court uh which was also made into a brilliant movie with I believe Bing Crosby uh who who plays the Connecticut Yankees. So those are some of his his fictional works. Um, I showed you Innocence Abroad, one of his uh, travel and travel and memoirs. He also wrote Roughing It and and I've read it and I
21:56 can't couldn't find my copy of it. And Life on the Mississippi. Oh, sorry. Roughing It was was written in 1872. Life on the Mississippi was written in 1883. I've also read that. It's a it's a wonderful book. Couldn't find my copy of that either. And um, and then uh, short works. um the celebrated uh jumping frog of Calaveris County written in 1865. What is a man in was written in 1906. And then you know one day I was in a bookstore um probably Barnes & Noble not for not
22:33 can't say for sure and I found this book and it's a murder a mystery and a marriage. This was a book that Mark Twain wrote but it was not published in his lifetime. Uh and um it was uh somehow it had been lost from his possession when he died in 1810 and it was embattled in the courts in in the 1940s and eventually that you know whatever the court fight was was straightened out and the book was published. So this is a
23:08 version um with a a forward and afterward by the bestselling humorist Roy Blunt Jr. and it has beautiful in illustrations by Peter Dev. So uh and and um it it's it's a short book, not even 100 pages if I recall. Okay. Yeah, just over a 100 pages. Let's see. Uh 110 pages. Well, that actually those may be notes. Yeah, that's about the author. So, yeah. So, the book itself is 105 pages. Um, I just want to show you one of the illustrations.
23:44 They're beautiful just line illustrations. That's a a balloon with a fellow who's fallen in head first. Um, and let me show you some of the other illustrations. Me find another one. Here we go. Okay, look at uh check this out. Isn't that It's just beautiful, right? So Sev's illustrations are just beautiful. So uh you know I if if you're looking for something short um it's it's an absolutely uh charming book. So, uh, one of the things, uh, I I love
24:19 about Mark Twain is he's famous for, uh, quips, sort of short, humorous lines. And I made a list of 10 of them. Uh, and and and in the tradition of David Letterman, I'm going to give the sort of maybe top 10 quips of Mark Twain, starting with number 10. Uh, patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it. I mean, right? Absolutely true. Uh, number nine, all generalizations are
24:55 false, including this one. That's a bit of a brain turner, isn't it? But also quite quite funny. Number eight, get your facts first, then you can distort them as much as you please. Love that, right? From and and by remember he was a journalist, right? So, uh you know, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Number seven, the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large
25:30 matter. It's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. Right? So, uh, Mark Twain was an aicionado of English and and that's something I truly admire. Uh, English is such a rich language. I think at last count there were something like two million words in English. Now contrast that with for example Hebrew where there's roughly 20,000 what are called shoreshim roots from which every other
26:07 word has to be made. English is a very precise descriptive language. So I I I love that. I'm going to read that one again. Uh the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. It's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. Okay. Number six, I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. Again, you know, the more things change, the more things stay the same. Uh, you know, I I I I think that we're really at a time when the way
26:46 education has been done for decades probably is going to have to change in this era of large learning models a aka AI and and what is going to be demanded of young people and future generations in terms of work and leisure and society in general. I'm not sure the old educational uh processes are are going to work. Number five, never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow just as well. So
27:24 uh you know I have to admit uh one of my great fears is that I will adopt that uh philosophy. Uh it is but it is so true and as I've got, you know, I I've used to be very very much get it done now. And one of the things my friend Bill has taught me and it was a tremendously valuable lesson is many things that seem to need to be done actually don't need to be
28:00 done and they can just be ignored. And I will say that that has reduced a significant amount of stress in my life. So thank you, Bill, for conveying to me uh in a different way the wisdom of the quip that that uh Mark Twain did. Okay. Number four. I was gratified to be able to answer promptly and I did. I said I didn't know. Every teacher in the
28:35 world should be required to know this quip by heart. It is the most powerful words a teacher can ever utter. I don't know. Because the pressure is on to always have the answer. But we don't. And the most important thing we can teach our students is that sometimes even we the teacher I don't know. Okay. Uh number three clothes make the man naked people
29:13 have little or no influence on society. That deserves a sip of cocktail. Okay. Number two, I have to take a minute to savor this one because it's one of my all-time favorites. It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt. I'm that is worthy of the wisdom
29:49 of Solomon. And then finally, number one, responding to a premature obituary, Mark Twain quipped, "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Right. What a what is there a better way to respond to what could easily be considered the ultimate insults? You know, you're dead, but you're but I'm still
30:25 alive, right? Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. So, I I've shared a little bit about Mark Twain's life. He grew up in very humble circumstances. Went on to tremendous fame. He was financially successful. Lost most of his money. Paid off all his debts. Became financially successful again. He was a successful husband and father. Dearly loved his wife and daughters.
31:01 He entertained and educated millions if not tens of millions of people and he can still do that for us today. So his books I think demonstrate an important aspect of writing and that oftent times with humor we can better make points that
31:36 it's important for people to consider than we can by screaming at them, insulting them, pummeling them on the head, barring them from being able to drive where they need to drive or walk where they need to go. Mark Twain didn't shrink from saying important things, but I I I believe he he was committed
32:11 to saying important things in the way that was most likely to help people actually hear them. He wanted first and foremost to entertain people but also to communicate with them. In in that regard, Mark Twain had a relationship with his readers. He welcomed them in with his humor. And then he put his arm around
32:46 their shoulders and said, "I I I have something important. I'd like to run by you just as food for thought. I'm not going to beat you up. I may present it a little cynically toward the end of my life. Gosh, you know, as a friend, I I sure wish you would consider what I have to say here. And and that's why I I think that Mark Twain's work is so accessible. A as a child when I read uh
33:24 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and I and I was probably in seventh or eighth grade when I saw uh the a Connecticut Yankee and King Arthur's Court. I just enjoyed them for the storytelling, for the adventure, for the humor. And it wasn't until later in life and when I I got a little older, got a lot older, that I started to think about what it was that Mark Twain wanted me to learn from all of these.
34:02 And that's a very friendly way to approach someone, right? And uh I I I I hope that when I these shows that I do at Jiggers's Place that on some level they're I'm doing them in the vein of how Mark Twain wrote. I don't want to club you over the head. I just just want you to be sitting here on the love seat with me or or like my friend Steve did a few weeks ago, sit on the
34:38 couch on the other side of me and let's just have a conversation, share ideas. Maybe we'll learn something from each other. And the and the fact of the matter is we can learn a lot about what it means to be an American by reading Mark Twain's books. We can learn some of the history of the 19th century. We can learn about how to deal with conflict between people. We can learn about [Music]
35:15 uh how to approach adventure and challenge in our life. We can learn about we can learn how to laugh at ourselves which I think is a very important skill for for all of us to have. I think too many of us take ourselves much too seriously especially when we're criticized or where we when we feel our beliefs are criticized by people with whom we disagree. Sometimes they're going to be right. We
35:50 might as well accept that. We can laugh at it. Um, and hopefully change our our behavior so that we can be better versions of ourselves, better Americans, etc. Mark Twain can teach us all of that while taking us back to the to a time in America that life seems by today's standards to have been simpler although certainly not for the
36:25 people who lived through it and give us an appreciation for how our forebears what what their struggles were, what they had to deal with. No matter who we are, no matter our race, creed, color, religion, doesn't matter. It would be a wonderful thing to develop a a a sense of um empathy for what our our fellow Americans went through in earlier times
37:01 in this country. uh because that will help us approach them today in a way that is more likely to engage them and have them want to communicate with us, share with us their true thoughts and feelings so that you know we can make um our life better, their life better, life for Americans in general better. And in the end, aside from the entertainment value of Mark Twain and
37:38 and books written in the 1800s, which is a wonderful thing and and a perfectly legitimate reason uh to read Mark Twain's books, uh you know, the reason for engaging in reading and learning, thinking is to figure out how do we make life better for ourselves, our family, members of our community, and our country going forward. If we could all take if we
38:15 could bottle Mark Twain's humor and take a little sip of it, think of how much easier that would be to engage with other people. So, you know, those are my those are my thoughts about Mark Twain, about his life and his work. Uh, I I'll make one last plea for you to if you if you've never read any of his books, please, please, please read one of his books. Just go to the library, buy one
38:50 on Amazon, and after you've read it, let me know what you think. I would really I would absolutely love knowing what you think. And hopefully Mark Twain will be to use a a sort of icky term a gateway drug uh to other great authors uh from two centuries ago. You know, we're in the 21st century, so the 19th century is already two centuries ago. We're a quarter of the way through the 21st century. Isn't that
39:26 amazing? Uh, and maybe Mark Twain will inspire you to to read some William Dean Howells. Wouldn't that be fantastic? Uh, and uh, and maybe he'll you'll be inspired to read Ulissiz Srant's autobiography. Maybe you'll pardon me. Maybe you'll be inspired to read Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery, an absolutely amazing
40:02 book. So, uh, I thank you very much for joining me at Jiggers's Place today, and I hope I hope you were able to make the twain and and sip it with me. And I hope you'll be back here again in two weeks for the next edition of Jiggers's Place. And in the meantime, next real quickly, next week on Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my oh, I'm sorry, uh, a special edition of the Way to Wow shows for Memorial Day. So, I hope you'll join me for that. On Tuesday
40:39 at 10 a.m. Pacific time is my show, Business Lessons from the Military. And on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my show uh people making money. So, thank you so much for joining me. Wishing you a wonderful rest of the afternoon and evening, a wonderful rest of the week, and signing off as I always do. Uh Marie, you know, you you are the epitome of a southern bell. And so it's partic particularly right for me to sign off to
41:16 you as I always do, reminding you that you are my bell. Courage at all times, my friends.