| And Some Have Greatness Upstairs From Them |
[Feb. 11th, 2009|06:02 pm] |
As I was walking back home from work I saw an unusual amount of activity through the windows of the University Bookstore, so I ducked inside to investigate. It turns out that ex-President Jimmy Carter was somewhere on the upper level, signing his books or doing whatever else retired Presidents do when they're in town.
Now I would have quite liked to catch a glimpse of a real-life President, but there was a big line (or "queue" as it's known in civilized countries) of people who seemed to be clutching three or four fat hardback volumes each, and I was hungry and didn't want to run the risk of being forced to buy an expensive book from the former most powerful leader on the planet. So I went away and got some pizza instead.
I don't really have much of a personal response to Carter, apart from the fact that he is the first President I can remember - I think I remember the announcement of him being on the way out - and that I like peanuts. No one seems to want to make silly films like Frost/Nixon about him these days, so it's possible that he's not all that interesting by Presidential standards. He is an astrological Libran though, which puts him in about the top 8% of the population in terms of integrity and charisma, and also wins Nobel Peace Prizes and stuff which doesn't hurt either. On balance I give James Earl Carter Jr - the first President to be born in a hospital! - a cautious thumbs up.
(EDIT: I've just discovered that Carter granted an official pardon to Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter who composed "Puff The Magic Dragon". If that's not enough to secure his place in the ranks of the good guys, I don't know what is!)
Anyway, that makes two times that I've been in at least the same building as a President now. Gods, Our American Cousin was a tedious play. |
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When I was 2 years old I was on a plane with Peter Yarrow. He was sitting (in coach!) in front of my mom and my mom lifted me up over the seat and I banged him on the head with my wee baby fist.
Did President Carter's full official pardon of his Gary Glitteresque crimes mean NOTHING to your baby self?!
From: (Anonymous)
2009-02-12 07:02 am (UTC)
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いけばなの先生は、70'sなのにメールしたり、自分のホームページ（つくってもらっている）を持っているのはかなりめずらしい。さすがに、メールが送受信できなくなって、人に頼んでみてもらっていたけど。それにしても、ルイスのウイルスには困ります。
ルイスウイルス禁止。
I met the Queen. You'll know this already, as I tell everyone I ever meet. Except the Queen herself, as when I met her, I hadn't met her yet. If I meet her again I'll be sure to tell her though.
Hmm, but the Queen didn't have to do anything to be Queen, apart from being born. Whereas Jimmy Carter presumably had to press a metric ton of flesh and make all sorts of extravagant electoral promises he couldn't hope to fulfill in practice, apart from his pledge of pardon the man who wrote Puff the Magic Dragon.
On this basis I think meeting the Queen and being downstairs in a bookstore from Jimmy Carter are about equally impressive stories!
You -> straws -> *clutch*
I can trump that anyway, having been in the same street as Bill Clinton once.
So was I! I wonder if it was the same street.
Wait a minute, you might once have been in the same street as ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bonsai_human? NOW I'm impressed.
Hello, I saw you on a train two days ago! It was at Waterloo, and you were being a train guard. You had sideburns and a ludicrous moustache. Which is it: do you have a ludicrously-moustached identical twin, or did you never really leave London and all this Canada/US/etc stuff is a lie?
He reproduces by binary fission. There's lots of him.
Ha ha, I can't believe it's been 2 years and you've only seen through one of my disguises so far!
He may have been inexplicably pardoned for paedophilia, but the back catalogue of Peter, Paul and Mary will never be forgiven!
He believes in aliens. That's all I know about him, apart from the peanuts.
He had access to all the US government's most classified files. Of course he believes in aliens!
If that's not enough to secure his place in the ranks of the good guys, I don't know what is)
And that is why there are no nifty films about him. He's too nice (at least in terms of politicians).
I remember Gerald Ford. the_original1 remembers watching the "I am not a crook" press conference on television and thinking Richard Nixon seemed like a nice man who was really sad about something (I think that's how he describes it). Of course, we're old. Jimmy Carter was not a specatacular President. He was not flashy, or particularly contentious. He is a good man, and would still be even if he hadn't pardoned Peter Yarrow. He just exudes goodness, so much that even though I don't agree with him politically or religiously, I think I'd break down crying if I got to meet him and shake his hand. It was extremely unfortunate for him that the Iran hostage crisis turned out the way it did. If there hadn't been a sandstorm during Operation Eagle Claw, things might have turned out differently, and this might be a very different country today. I go against popular opinion (aren't you shocked?) and give his Presidency, in retrospect, an enthusiastic thumbs up. | |
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