There was a brief tizzy back in 2004 when it was revealed that Saddam Hussein’s pistol had migrated to the White House. President Bush would show it off to select guests before returning it to it’s special place in his private office.
The story inspired the winner of an annual “Faux Faulkner” contest, “The Administration and the Fury”, but unlike past winners the man/boy gun story was not published in United Airlines’ “Hemispheres” magazine. It appeared instead in the publication’s on-line incarnation, assuring an audience of those without seat pockets in front of them. Alas, now it’s no longer accessible on the “Hemispheres” site.
Saddam’s gun will likewise disappear, entering the netherworld of presidential gifts entrusted to the nation. But pistol enthusiasts are looking ahead. Some are preparinga shiny new pistol to be presented to Bushafter he leaves office, when he can keep it.
A martyred president, cut down by a lone assassin before a popular imperialist adventure turned sour. The death of William McKinley was memorialized across the country with enormous numbers of statues and monuments. A hundred and six years later his massive Ohio burial place marks it’s own centennial striving to answer such questions as, “Why do bees make honey?â€
Lately we don’t hear so much about Ohio’s last president but Taft.
Back in the day they built monuments where he died:
Wrote songs:
Commemorated McKinley’s coffee service for Gettysburg front line soldiers:
And plunked down statues as far as the eye can see.
McKinley briefly got press during the flowering of George W. Bush’s uniting, when presidential svengali Karl Rove modestly allowed that his model was Mark Hanna’s creation of McKinley’s fairly durable Republican majority.
An item for sale on EBay is a presidentish artifact two-fer: the belovedly feisty* Harry Truman and presidential yachts!
For sale is a bottle of beer allegedly brewed for Truman before passing through the hands of a chief steward of the presidential yacht U.S.S. Williamsburg.
Serial citizen marrier and one time immigration jailbird Michael Kamburowski entertained California political circles this week with news of his unusual path to US residence and Republican politics. But an earlier chapter of his life concerns us, his prior career at the Reagan Legacy Project.
This Grover Norquist hellspawn roams the nation’s landscape hunting for people, places and things which might be named for the beloved former president.
They dig deep. Proudly claimed by the Project is the Ronald Reagan Room at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort in Santa Barbara.
…or the water. Future vacant lot in Ft.Worth = presidential mania [3rd item].
Lot’s of enthusiasm if few facts on the ground [or in writer’s mind apparently] on a local Ft. Worth architecture forum:
“I hope we use that site for a President’s Museum . Lots of History with Fort Worth and U.S. President’s. Read Ronald Reagan’s Auto bio He mention’s Fort Worth about 5 times . Its a funny story I believe it’s on page 160 180 something.Redo General Worth park and use the whole block for a JFK Memorial. Even if we have to nickel and dime our way another 40 year’s get the money. We should spend big buck’s because this will be our only real close chance to get a President’s Library type place.”
