calimary
calimary's JournalYou were the one who originally stated the premise as "Madame."
But I have no interest in starting an argument with you.
YES!!!
So he goes out in 15 months - from the second-most-powerful job in America and the second-most-powerful position on earth - with a legacy that will prove to be second to none. He won't be down in the mud, getting messed up, bruised and bloodied, with that being the way we all remember him.
Thank you, Joe. Thank you for your service, Mr. Vice President. And thank you for your lifelong dedication to all the good things.
It's the distaff version of "Mr. President" or "Mr. Secretary."
You're correct - nobody says "Sir President." But the term that IS used is "Mr. President." Therefore - as applies to a woman, it would properly be "Madame President."
And mine.
Glad to hear this, Agschmid! I know you put a lot of thought and study and observation into this. Thank you. And welcome to Team Hillary!
It IS a story of hope. And of taking the long view.
We Americans are all dreamers. Even the Pope recently said so! Thanks for posting this, Cha. It's so inspiring, reassuring, encouraging. Ointment for the soul.
Definitely wishing you the best!
Take your time and don't let yourself feel rushed. Looking forward to reading you, as usual.
A pleasure!
Regardless what's happened since, I still have a real sense of affection for the ol' "A&P"! I consider it a feather in my cap.
When I first hired on there, within a couple of weeks, the LA Times did a long feature story on the AP, that started on the left-hand column of the front page and went on all the way to the back pages. Everybody at the bureau was really buzzing about it, with great excitement, calling New York, calling Washington, calling their friends, calling their moms! The story opened with an anecdote about Mahatma Gandhi, back in the day, who had traveled across India by train to an obscure little outpost - late at night, in the rain. Waiting at the minimal train station to interview him was an AP correspondent. Gandhi was seriously impressed. Saw this as proof-positive that the AP really was EVERYWHERE. He commented that when he died, and arrived at whatever awaited him Upstairs, he fully expected to find an AP correspondent there, too, waiting to interview him.
That and the Mark Twain motto that's a proud AP legacy, as well: "There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe... the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here."
Does kinda make one proud!
Doesn't matter. It's timeless.
As you aptly note, hueymahl, it's as true and valid today - and all our tomorrows - as it was then.
What handicap? He's bigger and more brilliant than I could ever imagine being. Talk about rising above it.
A keeper. Both him AND his remarkable letter.
Yeah, and THAT did not surprise me one bit.
OF COURSE he'd wind up at the National Review! Either that or Pox, but he definitely had one of those things we referred to as "a face for radio." ALWAYS led with his wrong-wing slant. Jerk! What the hell they were thinking - hiring him to run the Washington bureau - I will never understand. Glad he didn't last long there!!!
And here's the thing of it: At the AP, we WEREN'T supposed to be slanted - AT ALL!!!!!!
Working at the AP was something we all regarded as similar to being in the Army.
You weren't going to get rich doing so. There was NO pizazz involved whatsoever. Everybody that newsroom struck me as another real-life version of Clark Kent. It was always a roomful of mild-mannered Clark Kents, both males and females but mostly men, whether at the LA bureau or the BNC in Washington (Broadcast News Center) or anywhere else. I once visited their print headquarters in NYC, at 50 Rock, and there, too - sure enough. Another roomful of mild-mannered Clark Kents. NEVER a Superman costume. But a whole lot of the humble not glorious or flashy or super-powered Clark Kents. Makes me think of the Geek Squad at Best Buy. Buncha dudes in rumpled clothes, hunched over their computers either on the phone with a source or writing, writing, writing. But you could count on what one of the member services guys referred to as "three square a day." As in - you certainly had enough to eat your three meals a day and cover all the basic expenses like rent or house payment and shoes for the kids and gas in the car and basic insurance premiums and so forth.
Fuck! I remember being on duty in L.A. the night former Beirut bureau chief Terry Anderson was released from several years as a hostage. CNN went live to the AP World Headquarters in NY. Somebody'd set up a camera in the newsroom - all ready to go for a live shot whenever the story could be confirmed (any minute now, folks!) and then it was all about waiting for the word to become official. It was a really boring visual - you could see part of what looked like a pretty empty newsroom (it was maybe 3am in New York) and the back of some dude predictably hunched over his computer, working on something, and not moving. Whoever he was, he seemed utterly oblivious to this major breaking news story directly affecting one of his own colleagues. Didn't even care that the camera was on him. Probably didn't know, but typical of an AP reporter - wouldn't care.
And we waited.
And we waited some more. It had been a pet cause, internally, among AP staffers all over the world, for something like four years, holding vigils and prayer moments where we'd all get in a circle in the middle of the newsroom and hold hands and close our eyes and silently send prayers and good thoughts and hope and good hoodoo and the rest of it - for the release of Terry Anderson. One of the guys in our bureau had buttons made up. There were Terry Anderson POW-style bracelets that some staffers wore every day. It was a tremendous moment - one of our own had been a hostage for several years - finally on the verge of being released! As Joe Biden would say - THIS was a Big Fucking Deal!
And we kept waiting. Seemed like a long time. It was late in the LA bureau that night and most of the staff had gone home (hell, WE covered Hollywood for the most part, so nobody in our bureau was particularly key to this story). Looked much the same in NYC, too. And every time CNN would cut back over to the live shot at the New York AP newsroom, STILL nothing was happening yet, for the longest time! At one point, here in L.A., as we were watching and getting bored, the nighttime supervisor - who had a booming baritone voice, shoulda been in radio - spoke up:
"And THERE we see... the BALD spot... of the NIGHT guy... at the AP World Headquarters in New York!" And those of us who were still there literally collapsed in laughter!!!! Talk about breaking the tension!
The AP was full of random moments like that. I spent nine years there. There were some times when it was just the coolest thing to do - work at the AP. There was just a certain kind of cachet to it. I felt like I'd actually become a full-on news person. No frills, no pizazz, no lights, camera, makeup, blondes, fancy sets or phony frippery. Just the news in a plain brown wrapper or generic brand at the grocery store. And some amazing good times.
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHome country: USA
Current location: Oregon
Member since: 2001
Number of posts: 81,220