Nothing ventured, nothing gained

The other day I ended a post on brother-blog Round-The-World Barstool Blues with the line "You gotta try, dontcha?"

I have been asked to explain the reference.

My favourite teacher at school had a rich stock of jokes and literary anecdotes with which he would regale us. One of his quirky enthusiasms was a study of the career of Huey Long, a celebrated populist American politician in the Depression years who won the governorship of Louisiana.... but later came to a bad end.

Huey was apparently quite a colourful character, prone to most of the vices. My teacher particularly liked this story about him:

Once, Huey Long was taking a long train journey with a close friend (perhaps it may even have been his campaign manager or an important political backer - I forget) and the friend's wife. The friend had to leave the carriage to answer the call of nature. Left alone with the charming lady, the libidinous Mr Long immediately made urgent and rather physical advances to her - which she gamely rebuffed. On his return, the friend quickly realised what must have transpired from his wife's flushed and agitated state, and glared accusingly at the would-be seducer. Huey, quite unabashed, smiled and said simply, in his ingratiating Southern drawl, "Well, you gotta try, dontcha?"