OBAMA AND THE BOBBY

Sunday Times: A.A. Gill---"As the President stepped up to 10 Downing Street, he leant over, made eye contact, said something courteous, and shook the hand of the police officer standing guard. There's always a police officer there; he is a tourist logo in his ridiculous helmet. He tells you that this is London, and the late 19th century. No one has ever shaken the hand of the policeman before, and like everyone else who has his palm touched by Barack Obama, he was visibly transported and briefly forgot himself. He offered the hand to Gordon Brown, the prime minister, who was scuttling behind.

It was ignored. He was left empty-handed. It isn't that Mr. Brown snubbed the police officer; he just didn't see him. To a British politician, a police officer is as invisible as the railings.

But the rest of us noticed. Being nice to the staff is second only to being nice to dogs as a pinnacle of civilization. Remember: a butler's not just for Christmas."

IT'S SUCH A GOOD DAY!

GRAYDON CARTER IS GOOOOOD

Quoting the ending of the Editor's Letter in the February 2009 Vanity Fair

"If this is the Second Great Depression, or the Great Retrenchment, or the Great Reckoning, or whatever it's going to be called, there has to be a silver lining somewhere. Perhaps all those expensive educations and burning talents that wound up on Wall Street moving money around will be redirected to fields of endeavor with some tangible output.

In the years between 1929 and 1939, creative talent in the U.S. flowered as in no other period of the last century. The 30's a decade of devastating hardship for so many, was also the golden age of art, photography, theater, and film. In New York City alone the

Empire State Building,

the Chrysler Building, and Rockafeller Center

were built during the 10 years beginning in 1929,

The Museum of Modern Art,

the Whitney

the Frick

and the Guggenheim all opened their doors during this period. And many of our great magazines, including Fortune, Life, Newsweek, and Esquire, were started during the decade. After the collapse of Wall Street in the 1920s, the culture stopped being all about money, and the country survived and ultimately flourished. Amid the wreckage we're created, America will most certainly rise again, and it might even be a better place to live and dream." Graydon Carter

WHAT IF?

YES!!

CHOICES--- CAN YOU TELL WE LOVE EACH OTHER