I'm going crazy trying to track down origins of the family of
sayings which include "I'd rather a free bottle in front of me than a
pre-frontal lobotomy", I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than
have to have a frontal lobotomy", "Better a full bottle in front of
me than a full-frontal lobotomy", etc. (BTW it's not "labotomy", we
have frontal lobes, not labs or labia).
Randy Hanzlinger definitely used a version in a song and claimed
to get it off a VA hospital toilet wall. Many people attribute it to W
C Fields but I have reason to think that's false. But it's almost
certainly older than Tom Waits' songs.
Be that as it may he may have used it in a song or in some other
writings. Can anyone definitely identify a song lyric or printed
work authored by Tom Waits and containing this phrase? Despite
all the attributions I've had no luck so far.
