10.24.2025 – whole world was watching

whole world was watching
and other nations could not …
help but be impressed

I’ve never been a Nixon-hater, and I felt no pleasure when he resigned.

But if it had to be, I’m glad it happened the way it did.

A president fell and a new president took over, and yet there was no scuffling, no guns, no harsh bickering, no crowds in the streets— not so much as a fistfight.

The whole world was watching, and other nations couldn’t help but be impressed.

After all, when leaders fall, their governments usually collapse as well.

But our transition was orderly and by the book, and this period, as much as anything in our history, showed the strength of our great democracy.

Man of the House : the life and political memoirs of Speaker Tip O’Neill by Tip O’Neill (New York: Random House, 1987).

I have to ask, what has the recent effort to make America great again achieved over this?

About the last 10 years there is little to contribute to writing that this period, as much as anything in our history, showed the strength of our great democracy.

Mr. O’Neill concluded his book with an epilogue titled, What I Believe.

He wrote:

I BEGAN my political career in 1936, on a slogan of “work and wages.” Today, more than half a century later, I’m still a bread-and-butter liberal who believes that, every family deserves the opportunity to earn an income, own a home, educate their children, and afford medical care.

That is the American dream, and it’s still worth fighting for. In my view, the federal government has an obligation to help you along the line until you achieve that dream. And when you do, you have an obligation to help out the next group that comes along.

What a dreamer and what a dream.

Let’s repeat those last two sentences.

The federal government has an obligation to help you along the line until you achieve that dream.

And when you do, you have an obligation to help out the next group that comes along.

Just boil it down to the simple statements that the federal government has an obligation to help you and you have an obligation to help the next group.

Those two statement as much as anything in our history, show the strength of our great democracy.

That is where the focus should be if anyone wants to make America great again.

Speaker Tip O’Neill was Speaker of the House from Gerald Ford to Ronald Reagan and most likely that last of Speaker of House to hold real power in politics.

When he died, President Bill Clinton paid tribute to him, saying, “Tip O’Neill was the nation’s most prominent, powerful and loyal champion of working people… He loved politics and government because he saw that politics and government could make a difference in people’s lives. And he loved people most of all.“

AS KIND OF A POSTSCRIPT, Mr. O’Neill also wrote:

God has been good to America, especially during difficult times.

At the time of the Civil War, he gave us Abraham Lincoln.

And at the time of Watergate, he gave us Gerald Ford—the right man at the right time who was able to put our nation back together again.

Nothing like Watergate had ever happened before in our history, but we came out of it strong and free, and the transition from Nixon’s administration to Ford’s was a thing of awe and dignity.

Making an assessment based on the folks now in Government, I think God doesn’t like us much right now.

10.5.2025 – she predicts either

she predicts either
a war or the end of the
world in October

I know how she feels.

So I had to add another “a” to make it work.

Thurber, depending on the time of day, might have forgiven me.

More Thurber here at formuggsandrex.com.

Reading some odd stuff online I came across in review of the book of Thurber Letters titled The Thurber Letters: The Wit, Wisdom and Surprising Life of James Thurber , edited by Harrison Kinney,

In a reviewer states, Thurber never warmed to William Shawn.

Shawn took over as Editor of the New Yorker when Harold Ross died.

I also recently came across the fact that after three years, Shawn dropped out of the University of Michigan and went to New York to find his fortune.

Thurber never graduated from Ohio State after being a student there for five years.

Both institutions wrestled with how to handle these famous but non-degree holding alums.

But did it also sprout the roots of a non-working relationship?

Some one’s PhD dissertation is waiting to be written.

10.4.205 – integrity so strong

integrity so strong
to defend the Constitution
govern their actions

Plaque in Constitution Corner at United States Military Academy at West Point, NY.

A plaque states:

The USMA Class of January 1943
dedicates this
Constitution Corner
to our classmates who died
in combat (shown by *) or in military accidents

They supported and defended the Constitution
as, here on the Plain, we together swore to do.

2 Cadets and 74 of our 409 graduates died in the sequence below …

Plaque Seven states:

The United States boldly broke with the ancient military custom of swearing loyalty to a leader. Article VI required that American Officers thereafter swear loyalty to our basic law, the Constitution.

While many other nations have suffered military coups, the United States never has. Our American Code of Military Obedience requires that, should orders and the law ever conflict, our officers must obey the law. Many other nations have adopted our principle of loyalty to the basic law.

This nation must have military leaders of principle and integrity so strong that their oaths to support and defend the Constitution will unfailingly govern their actions. The purpose of the United States Military Academy is to provide such leaders of character.

We can always hope ..

10.3.2025 – news unstoppably

news unstoppably
not by week and day but by
the hour and minute

During the Second World War, the volume of information dispensed by what were beginning to be called the media — newspapers, magazines, books, movies, and, a few years later, TV — multiplied to an extent that nobody has been able so far to make an accurate reckoning of.

It was a change so great that even the remotest illiterate hermit could not fail to be altered by it; for the first time, with astonishment and sometimes with dismay, one sensed that a Niagara of news was flooding unstoppably in upon us, not by the week and day but by the hour and minute.

People sat by their radios and listened with satisfaction to news bulletins, infinitesimally rewritten as they were repeated, about victories and defeats throughout the world, and then went out and bought newspapers and magazines and gorged themselves on the same information for a tenth or twentieth time.

From Here at the New Yorker by Gill, Brendan, (New York: Viking Press, 1975).

Can you imagine such a world?

One sensed that a Niagara of news was flooding unstoppably in upon us, not by the week and day but by the hour and minute.

Let’s repeat that.

Not by the week.

Not by the day.

But by the hour

But by the minute.

People gorged themselves on the same information for a tenth or twentieth time.

Flooding unstoppably.

Unstoppably!

What a great word, but I digress.

A change so great that even the remotest illiterate hermit could not fail to be altered by it.

1941.

The state of news once the United States got into World War 2.

Looking back at the change wrought in the “media”, Mr. Gill wrote in 1975 that “nobody has been able so far to make an accurate reckoning of.”

On the one hand … no kidding.

On the other, how long will it take to make an accurate reckoning of the social media age?

Will anybody care?

9.23.2025 – all count the same, some …

all count the same, some …
feel little bit different
and this is one of those

“They all count the same, but there are some that feel a little bit different. And this is one of those”

− Troy Aikman, on ESPN, after the Lions 38-20 win over Baltimore

I watched last night.

I watched the Detroit Lions pull off a 4 down goal line stand that was one for the ages.

Then I watched the Lions give the ball right back after a typical for me Lions 3 and out and then I watched the Lions give up a score to tie the game.

In my mind, the score had changed to 21-7 Lions and now it was 14-14.

A lot of game to go to be sure, but my old Lions Fan brain kicked in and I said to myself, ‘Same Old Lions.”

I am here to apologize.

I am here to say I was wrong.

I am here to say, I believe and I won’t doubt again.

And I want to say thank you to the Lions for the break away from everything else on my mind and thank you for the respite.

That 4th and 2 pass, well Boy Howdy, I will not doubt again.

As Troy Aikman said as time wound down, “They all count the same, but there are some that feel a little bit different. And this is one of those.”

Which I thought was pretty good.

As much as I know about TV and behind the scenes producers and production meetings and planned one-liners, I felt that in this moment, Troy Aikman, who has experienced his share of the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” spoke from the heart, spontaneously.

Mr. Aikman enjoyed the joy with which the Detroit Lions and their coach, Dan Campbell, play the game.

As Mr. Aikman looked at the crowd, the packed stadium, the roaring fans and the home team all in black, a team named for a bird in a poem written by one of America’s darkest poets (who was from Baltimore), and the visiting team comes in, bets all their chips and lays down the winning hand and Mr. Aikman said, “They all count the same, but there are some that feel a little bit different. And this is one of those”

The next morning in the Detroit Free Press, Mitch Albom published his column with the headline: Detroit Lions prove they are ready for prime time with win at Baltimore.

Mr. Albom led with:

You live long enough, you get to write a sentence like this:

Monday Night was why so much of America loves the Detroit Lions.

Mr. Albom closed with:

Bright Lights, Big Lions. America loves a good show. And America, more and more, loves this team. Go watch the tape of this game again. You’ll see why.

Once again folks, these just aren’t the same old Lions.