Few presidents would ever know more triumph, few suffer such a swift and tragic fall. -LBJ. American Experience I wasn’t always obsessed with Lyndon Baines Johnson. This particular itch began several years ago. I was at home, nursing a cold, when I decided to watch a documentary about Lyndon Johnson. On the couch, sniffly, and… Continue reading Looking for Lyndon #1: An Obsession Begins
Category: Presidents
Lyndon B. Johnson: Lullaby
This is how you think about Lyndon B. Johnson in order to go to sleep at night. First you listen to Paula Cole sing “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone.” This will help you romanticize Texas, the land that gave us LBJ in the early 1900s. You will hear the howl in her voice and… Continue reading Lyndon B. Johnson: Lullaby
In an open letter to the many old people I saw at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum,
“Y’all come out in force, don’t you. You didn’t fool me though. You wanted to learn President Carter’s secret to longevity, no?”
Presidential Quote #5
Presidential Quote #4
In an open letter to Mary Lincoln,
“Why are you calling out to me like this? You know that I am interested in the First Ladies primarily as the wives and hostesses of the presidents. I am not interested in them, you all, particularly as individuals. But you threaten my resolve. You are trying to suck me in? You had me Googling […]
In an open letter to Richard Nixon,
“I didn’t mean to imagine you in the bathtub, and then to imagine you picking at a terry cloth robe. It just happened, and I couldn’t stop…”
Presidential Quote #3
Herbert Hoover, Here I Come…
Above, my friends, is one heck of a Herbert Hoover collage. Even a president aficionado (as I was called when I visited the Theodore Roosevelt Inauguration site), was taken aback by all of that Hooverness. This weekend I’ll be meeting a friend at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. I am so thrilled that… Continue reading Herbert Hoover, Here I Come…
In an open letter to the documentary on the Roosevelts,
“For someone whose rock stars are presidents, that movie clip of a young Franklin Roosevelt made me want to scream and faint. My mental landscape has been kissed by the glow of his youthful beauty.”