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I just remembered another presidential one-liner.
Calvin Coolidge, who was notorious for brevity, came back from chuch one Sunday. His wife was at home, not having felt well, and she asked, "What was the sermon about?" Coolidge replied, "Sin." She asked, "Well, what did he say?" Cal replied, "He was against it."
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Who had that other great White House oneliner? Bess Truman? Eleanor Roosevelt? She said something to the effect of, "If you don't have anything nice to say about someone, come sit beside me."
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Carpal Tunnel
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Alice! I think she was Teddy daughter or maybe granddaughter-- cousin to Eleanor and Franklin
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addict
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I can't remember who was meant to have said it to whom - some society beauty to a leading politician - but the conversation was along the lines of:
'We should consider marriage. Consider - a child with my looks and your brains.'
'No thanks! Consider a child with my looks and your brains.'
I was fool enough to apply this once to someone who was boasting about his mother who had a doctorate and father who had played rubgy at an international level...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think the best one-line I ever came up with was just two words long...
I was being interviewed for a job by the President and Vice-President when they decided to ask a physcological question (I guess they must have read some book that said they should). The point of those is to see how you react as much as what you answer. This is what they asked...
"If you were stuck on a desert island and you could have one thing with you, only one thing...what would it be"
I replied...
"a boat"
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Carpal Tunnel
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I met Alice Roosevelt Longworth when I was a young kid living in DC. Somehow my parents wangled an invitation to a party and I somehow wangled an invitation to go with them. She was a very nice little old lady who ruled DC's social scene for many yers, along with a lady named Perle Mesta.
Alice was TR's daughter and from the pictures of her in her youth darn fine looking. She married a guy named Longworth who was very much her senior and who is the person for whom the Longworth House Office Building is named.
Alice's birth caused the death of TR's first and much adored wife, whose name I think might have been Anne. TR was distraught as he had married very much for love, and farmed out Alice because there was just too much pain involved in even holding her in his arms. When she was much older TR resumed his parental relationship with her.
I don't remember what she and I talked about, as I was only 7 or so, but somewhere around there's a picture of me and her together. I think my younger brother has it.
TEd
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a child with my looks ...
It was George Bernard Shaw and Isadora Duncan.
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There is a story that at one White House party, Mrs Longworth lit up a cigarette at a reception and was approached by frowning functionary who admonished her that there was no smoking allowed in the White House. She reportedly replied "Young man I was smoking in the White House before you were born, now get me an ashtray." Word has it he did.  wow
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enthusiast
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Having seen the film "The Dish" recently, as I posted in another thread, I was reminded of Neil Armstrong's immortal words:
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".I admire the (intended) sentiments, allegedly Neil's own words, not those of NASA or the US government, but it has always bugged me that he left out the critical article "a", thus seriously undermining the meaning. Indeed the quote is sometimes rendered as: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind".I have heard Armstrong claim that he said the "a", but that it was nabbed by gremlins in the communication system. I tend to believe the alternative theory that in his nervous state he fluffed the line. But hell, who can blame him? I go weak at the knees on a stepladder. Post-script: Thought I'd google the subject before posting. Here's just one of the thousands of results: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_362.html
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That reminds me of advice I heard for a job interview: When they asks what you consider your weaknesses to be, reply - with a straight face - "Kryptonite."
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