If You Build It They Will ComeÂ
Zoning officials have signed off on George W. Bush’s Presidential Library plunking parking lots right up against its northern neighbors, on a side of the Bush complex not shown in the lovely drawings the Library released.Â
The neighbors had complained, and University Park officials made noises about forcing changes in the plans. But at a meeting with no public participation they appear to have caved entirely to SMU’s threat of slapping dorms on the property.
 The lots would be to Mrs. Bush’s right in this photo, the other side of the trees.
Apparently gone are the days when the Bush’s touted their “truly urban location,” and the Library was to anchor a “string of urban pearls” connected by mass transit.
University Parked
A Cry For HelpÂ
Laura Bush’s glazed look was much commented upon while her husband served as president. Now the shocking truth can be revealed: Laura Bush is actually drug and plastic surgery ravaged Betty Ford!
A Ford In Her Future    Â
Texas sculptor Scott Sustek is creating a statue for Austin’s Laura Bush Library, under construction in the state capitol.  The former First Lady posed for him and submitted to measurements, and she and her staff appear to have approved his Ford-ifying.
The Hard ShellÂ
The New Yorker reports the latest on the effort to flog Laura “The Nice One” Bush’s tell-some memoirs, which has involved a series of publishing greats trekking to the White House to meet the Fightin’ Librarian before they sign up.
One publisher says it isn’t going well.
“I considered it the worst, or the most frustrating, meeting of its sort that I’ve ever had…But she really couldn’t have been nicer.â€
And the hoped for softer side of Team Bush?
 “You got the sense she’s just like him.â€
Others share the gloom:
“everyone was totally underwhelmed by her”
And as in so many Laura updates, novelist and biographer-in-all-but-name Curtis Sittenfeld [American Wife]
goes for the kill:
“Sometimes when people share their thoughts it’s sort of disappointing.â€
Tell Me A Story
Weakly Readers
The mother/daughter Bush author tag team worked it almost up to Jenna’s wedding, but America’s paper of record is unimpressed.
“Whom is this book supposed to convince, and of what? Leaving aside that part of the base who will find the conjuring of ghosts and dragons deeply suspicious, kids who already understand how stories work will see that this one doesn’t, and kids who don’t like stories won’t be persuaded otherwise. … The point is laboriously made, the teachers’ names are dorky, the plot is hectic and the suspense and dialogue are artificial. What child today says “peskyâ€?”
If These Thistles Could Talk
We feared we’d never see the wedding – the Washington Post was among the media hordes resorting to Bush ranch edges file photos while repeating how little we knew.
Then the White House released manna from heaven, and the nation embraced the lovely couple and her sweaty family.
The President is strangely the only normal looking one here.