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12.18.2008

Classic Jack

“Everybody else discovers molecules. I’m drunk in a bar.”

— Jack Nicholson being inducted into California’s Hall of Fame after an introduction by Dave Brubeck focusing on some ribald behavior at a hotel early in Nicholson’s career.

11.05.2008

Welcome to the White House

On April 12th, 1945, Vice President Harry Truman was told to come to the White House. He was ushered into Eleanor Roosevelt’s sitting room and informed that President Roosevelt had died making Truman the 33rd president of the United States.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Truman asked Eleanor Roosevelt. Read more »

10.28.2008

On Gumbo…

“Its a little like religion and a lot like sex — You should never know when youre gonna get it next.”

— Jimmy Buffett, “I Will Play for Gumbo”

(The song is the final track on Little Feat’s rousing new CD, Join the Band, coincidentally produced by Mr. Buffett.) Read more »

10.02.2008

A Couple Paul Newman Classics

in the 1989 movie, “Blaze,” Paul Newman plays Earl K. Long the governor of Louisiana who is also the subject of a wonderful book by the brilliant A. J. Liebling called, aptly enough, The Earl of Louisiana.

The movie is centered on Long’s love affair with the stripper Blaze Starr, played by Loita Davidovich. Read more »

8.28.2008

This From a Republican Staffer…

I find this portion of the governor’s answer to a question on budget borrowing, reported in today’s Capitol Morning Report, to display a fascinating collage of pronouns.

“So we will never make that mistake again. They made that mistake. You can make a mistake once but when you see that was a mistake, then you shouldn’t make that mistake again. Read more »

8.11.2008

A Few Words In Defense of Our Country

A president once said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”

Now it seems like we’re supposed to be afraid. It’s patriotic in fact and color coded.

And what are we supposed to be afraid of? Why, of being afraid. That’s what terror means, doesn’t it?

That’s what it used to mean. Read more »

7.01.2008

Lest One Forget…

How truly remarkable a president this failed haber-dasher and creation of the Pendergast political machine was, this will jog the memory.

Here’s Harry Truman’s farewell address to the American people:

January 15, 1953

[Broadcast from his office in the White House at 10:30 p.m.]

My fellow Americans:

I am happy to have this opportunity to talk to you once more before I leave the White House. Read more »

6.24.2008

The More Things Change…

“No man’s life, liberty or property is safe when the Legislature is in session.”

Mark Twain, 1866

5.29.2008

On Government Spending

“The problem with the state’s finances is not what’s being earned in revenues. Revenues are up. Its the method by which we spend. It has never had anything to do with revenues.

“We make decisions on spending and don’t think revenue realistically. Government should always operate on the theory you afford what you can afford to spend — not what you project you’re going to get. Read more »

5.07.2008

All Too True

“The only time a woman really succeeds in changing a man is when he is a baby.”

–Natalie Wood Read more »

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