Saturday, December 20, 2003

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Fun With the Web The item below is an example of the intellectual fun the internet delivers. I came across the Reagan anecdote a few years ago, watching the Biography episode on him on TV. Didn't think too much more about it. Then, when I read the Nixon anecdote, it of course reminded me of the Reagan anecdote, and made me want to blog and connect the two. Two obstacles to providing footnote-type links: I had seen, not read, the Reagan anecdote; and I had read the Nixon anecdote in walled-off (not freely searchable) content. The first one was easily sovled with standard search strategies. The second was solved, albeit imperfectly, using the new Amazon "search inside the book" feature. Somewhere I read a clever description of one of the web's three primary uses as being settling trivial bar bets, such as "What were the names of the seven dwarves?". (I'm not having much luck with my search strategies for uncovering that article). I totally agree. It is like an extension of my memory bank. The more you read, the more trivia you can remember, and now, find. 10:42:26 PM    comment []

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Coatless! I have always been willing to tolerate a brief moment of chill--walking from parking lot into a store, for example--in exchange for hours of freedom from the encumberance of a coat (in part because I know there is no reason to fear this will bring on a cold). It looks like I am in good company. I had already been aware of this anecdote from the first meeting of Reagan and Gorbachev: "weather was freezing cold. Gorbachev and his interpreter wore heavy winter coats and Russian fur hats, and drove to the meeting place. As their automobile arrived at the door, out came Reagan with a big smile and no coat or hat, energetically running out of the open door and down the steps to greet Gorbachev with obvious vitality". Now, in Kissinger, I read that, upon the first meeting of Nixon and de Gaulle, Nixon glimpsed the general standing oustide, awaiting Nixon's arrival, wearing no coat, and that Nixon thus decided to shed his coat! 10:21:56 PM    comment []