Dove feathers in the President's mouth etc

[Paul Mackin]

On Thu, 2003-01-30 at 14:13, Elainemmbell at aol.com wrote:
> Foolishly imagining that my great distaste for GWB is the prevailing opinion 
> among my immediate neighbors here in very left wing West Hartford, 
> Connecticut (well, "very" when measured against other places in Connecticut), 
> 
> I made the mistake of answering a question honestly in public yesterday:
> 
> Went to my corner grocery, let's call it "Dave's".  When Dave is out a sweet 
> little elderly lady named Joanie womans the cash register for him.  Everyone 
> loves Joanie.  Some people will only shop at Dave's on the days Joanie is 
> working!  She's the kind of little lady who calls everybody "darlin'" and 
> "Sweetie pie" and gets away with it.
> 
> So here's long braids, long skirts, long left leaning me in a particularly 
> bad humour on a bitterly cold day, buying my pitiful groceries with leftover 
> change and annoyed about it coming up to Joanie's beaming smiling 
> warm-weather self, surprised to hear her ask me:  "So, Hon, did you watch the 
> President's speech last night?!"
> 
> Completely ignoring Joanie's nonverbal subtext, I answered her immediately, 
> and vigorously:  "Yes I did, and it ruined my night.  I don't believe a word 
> that man says.  I swore at my television.  I stamped my little feet.  I think 
> it's criminal that such a creature is the leader of the free world."
> 
> ...dead silence as she counted my payment of coins and handed me back my 
> receipt.  Then she looked up at me, her usually animated face tense and cold, 
> her chattery little red-lipsticked mouth startlingly tight.  "Well," says 
> Joanie through her teeth, "It's a good thing we live in a country where 
> people can express their own views about things (pause) and not get shot!" 
> (Clearly indicating by her tone of voice that I was fortunate she hadn't a 
> weapon at hand)  Realizing my faux pas, I decided to go all the way.  So I 
> answered her remarks by saying, "Not yet anyway."  I don't think they'll 
> carry my tab at Dave's next time.
> 
> In sum, thank you all for this environment where we can say pretty much 
> anything we want and not have to bear the looks on each others' faces!  So 
> much nicer than people in 3D!

Interesting. Not much of a problem around here. People seldom ask what
one thinks about Presidential utterances, the theory being I guess that
only what the poling people turn up is important. 
P.