"What did they do to the booze, Hickey?"

       Sometimes a line from a play will stick with you for the rest of your life, meeting your needs in many situations.

       Last night that was the case when I found myself saying, "What did they do to the booze, Hickey?"

       In Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, Hickey proselytizes the habitues at a local bar into getting off their duffs and making something of their lives.  Hickey's inspirational, and the men all try but are really not up to it.  When Hickey returns and finds them back at the bar, disgruntled and forlorn, one man says, "What did they do to the booze, Hickey?"

       So when something that used to satisfy doesn't, has no savor to it, that line from O'Neill pops into my head, and I recite it with the sullen passion it deserves.