Reagan Quote
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“As I often say,” said Ronald Reagan recently on television, “trust everybody, but cut the cards.”
My father, Finley Peter Dunne, said it only once, some 90 years ago, or rather had his fictional bartender-philosopher, Mr. Dooley, say it: “Thrust ivrybody, but cut th’ ca-ards.”
Other Presidents often quoted Mr. Dooley, including both Roosevelts and John F. Kennedy, but they always gave him full credit. They didn’t claim to “often say” what he had said.
At least, when the Great Communicator decided to plagiarize a writer, he picked a good one.
PHILIP DUNNE
Malibu
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