All aboard for two full hours of ship shaping, USS Ronald Reagan style!
Tomorrow the National Geographic Channel presents what we can only suppose is an upbeat account of life aboard the aircraft carrier.
Judging from Reagan’s afterlife online it should draw well. The subculture of USS Reagan tchotskes grows ever more diverse daily.
For $5.95 plus shipping you may own this handsome 5×7 inch photograph of a disturbing looking Nancy Reagan christening the ship.
What’s the deal with the angle of her head?
You might prefer the action shot with a more realistic looking Mrs. Reagan, only $9.99, shipping included!
Or go all out and drop $5,600 on a ships painting, shipping included.
Ohio Representative Ralph Regula’s retirement announcement raised hope in some quarters [all right, here anyway] that the gifts he showered upon his wife’s “National First Ladies Library” might cease. But the New York Times reports the old warhorse is going out with a bang, asking for a $130,000 earmark for the library. Because after all,
“Members of Congress are infinitely more familiar with the needs and priorities of their communities than unelected, federal bureaucrats in Washington and should be allowed to direct funding to important local initiatives.”
On the other hand, maybe the Library’s Laura Bush mask makes it all worthwhile
Representative Regula also serves America by leading the fight to keep the name of Canton Ohio’s own President McKinley on a mountain in Alaska, despite what Alaska thinks about it.
The Washington Post today has an editorial today [“Records Under Wraps – Hillary Clinton’s White House papers would be tied up even if she released them“] which is a rarity in coverage and commentary on the story. It addresses the real issue and the real need: Bush finagling on access to Presidential papers and lack of staff to process what documents make it through the mill.
“….even if Mr. Clinton today asked the National Archives to release confidential communications between him and the former first lady, disclosure could still be years away. That’s because the six archivists at the Clinton library would have to sift through — by hand — more than 138 million pages in 36,000 boxes. And that’s after they respond on a first-come-first-served basis to 287 pending Freedom of Information Act requests”
Meanwhile, an Administration with a proven record of concealment and slipshod handling of it’s papers is now under federal court order not to destroy backup tapes for emails, millions of which may be missing. 
Laugh, and the World Loses Grasp of the Facts
Although the opening was briefly marred by the Reagan Museum’s lost collections story, and by people actually recalling the era, Nancy Reagan’s dress show has returned her in triumph to the fashion pages.
“Her glamour sometimes spurred more ire than awe. Reagan was widely criticized for her extravagance during the economic downturn, and she took her biggest drubbing for commissioning $200,000 worth of china for the White House in 1981. A year later, however, she shocked journalists and her husband alike when she paraded onstage during a Gridiron Dinner wearing a schizophrenic get-up that included a feather boa and yellow galoshes. The first lady belted out “Second Hand Clothes” to the tune of “Second Hand Rose.”
“The reporters saw that she could laugh at herself and it became a turning point for her and the press,” co-curator Jenkins says.”
Everyone loves America’s Widow!
In order to pull this off the actual history of her fashion habit has to be ignored.
In brief: she took clothing, only occasionally paid for it, lied about it, and kept sloppy records throughout Reagan’s two terms. Some details here.
The exhibit’s second hand clothes tribute to her masterful evasion of facts: 
What do you serve the Sultan of Oman and his enormous entourage for dinner? Who should sit next to a foreign dignitary who doesn’t speak a word of English? Why is it that there is always less silverware at the end of a state dinner than you had when the night began?
What is the audience for books asking such questions?
We’re about to find out. In the wake of her old clothes show at the Reagan Library, America’s Widow is collaborating on a tome promising to answer these urgent needs.
“Entertaining at the White House with Nancy Reagan” hurtles us back to that magical time, when a pre-comeback John Travolta 
danced with Princess Di in the East Room, when triangular trade in weapons and hostages between the US, Nicaragua and Iran could seem to be a ‘pretty good idea.” Anything seemed possible!
Apparently the White House had been overrun by hippies and hillbillies, and FFL Nancy Reagan cleared the stables.
“Mrs. Reagan embraced this role with a unique energy and joie de vivre rare among her predecessors, and she has been waiting for the right moment in history to share her stories.”
Lest we forget… 
Or go all out and drop $5,600 on a ships painting, shipping included.
