Indeed Benjamin Franklin was a real man of genius, not like those “real men of genius” on the Bud Light radio ads such as Mr. SPF80 Sunblock Wearer. (who is covered in the event the sun fails to set or from another sun in another universe).
In Franklin’s time, I bet more old drunkards did exist than old doctors. I would guess that remains true but have no way to prove it, although I know a few old doctors who conveniently fit into both categories.
Willie Nelson had a similar point of view in his song “I’ve Gotta Get Drunk (and I sure do dread it.)” He goes with the word “drunks” instead of the more formal “drunkard.” As if there were a formal drunkard. “Pahdon me, but I am a bit undah the weathah.”
“There’s a lot of doctors tell me
That I’d better start slowing it down
But there’s more old drunks than there are old doctors
So I guess we’d better have another round.”
Nelson looks as if he could be a contemporary of Franklin’s but I think there really were a few years separating Franklin’s death and Nelson’s birth.
Look, I don’t know if what these lofty thinkers are saying is true about more drunks living than old doctors. I sure as hell am not going to bog myself down on a Labor Day afternoon trying to prove it or disprove it. But I was getting a little tired of Philip Roth’s quotation under the EFD flag, so I thought I would go with the old drunkard quote. That’s all it is, expediency man. Don’t take it percanol.