This quote is from P. J. O’Rourke, a conservative with a sense of humor: I like to do my principal research in bars, where people are more likely to tell the truth or, at least, lie less convincingly than they do in briefings and books.
Now to my point this week. April 9 the metro dailies were all over unveiling the new wax figure of first lady Michelle Obama at the Madame Tussaud’s museum in Washington, D.C.
At this ceremony a reporter from the Washington Times noticed no Republican first ladies have had the honor of being immortalized in wax at the museum.
Hillary is there. So is Jackie Kennedy. Twice. There is no Nancy Reagan, Betty Ford or Barbara or Laura Bush.
There is a reason for prefacing the word arts with ‘liberal.?
The Tussaud spokeswoman-marketing-director said, ‘There have not been enough requests. There has been overwhelming support for a Michelle Obama figure because of her being a fashion icon and mother.?
Were those two criteria used in selecting Hillary? Ah, no. So there must be other reasons for such choices.
That’s where liberalism appears to also be a criteria.
Or, there could be this thinking: Democrat first ladies are more entertaining, Republicans more real, less waxlike, less fake.
They get requests from their gift shop and kiosk. Oh, yeah, and website.
That eliminates my vote.
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Comments from 1957: ‘I’m just afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.?
‘It won’t be long before young couples will have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.?
‘If they raise the minimum wage to $1, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.?
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Here’s one that wasn’t heard in 1957: ‘The day is coming when daily newspapers will go the way of the stagecoach, penny postcards, soda fountain and telegraph.?
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In 1956 Secretary of State James Hare sent me a historical chronology of the State of Michigan. It’s in a folder I pass over every time I write Jottings. I glanced through it this week. It dates to 1622, when Etienne Brule and his companion Grenoble, French explorers, searching for a water route to the Pacific Ocean, discovered Lake Superior.
I stopped at 1933, when Michigan declared a bank holiday on February 14, created the Michigan Liquor Commission and enacted the Sales Tax Act.
Bad times bring out the best in times for legislators to make holidays and create new ways to tax the unemployed.
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I’ve written before about there being way too many things being offered via television.
‘Women who aren’t satisfied with the settlement can have the pillowcase tightened.? Well, at least they are sensitive to some listeners.
Writers? efforts to shorten statements oft-times lose something. When a politician is seeking reelection they say, ‘Don’t change horses in the middle of the stream.?
When Abraham Lincoln, said it in 1864 it was, ‘It is not best to swap horses while crossing the river.?
Grantland Rice is well-quoted for saying, ‘It’s not that you won or lost, but how you played the game.?
However, he began with, ‘When the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name, He marks, not that you won or, etc.?
References to that ‘One Great Scorer? are left from lots of quotes these days.
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