The Real Gerald Ford
Scrapbook The Real Gerald Ford In eulogy upon eulogy after his death December 26, President Gerald Ford was remembered as decent, down to earth, caring, self-effacing, and, especially, a wonderful...
...and we can truthfully report that the division of labor, the function of markets, mediums of exchange, and mercantilism have never been funnier—or more cogently explained—than here...
...This involves the memory of my father-in-law, and I take that very seriously...
...America has produced many such leaders, but few more worthy than Ford...
...Ford had the makeup (though not always the policies) we want in a national leader...
...I want to make sure we do this right and get involved with the right people," she told the AP...
...If there's anyone on the planet who can make Adam Smith as entertaining and informative as he was prophetic, it's P.J...
...devour classics "so you don't have to," and describe them, with wit and sagacity, for modern readers...
...To begin with, when he purchased a new bus 15 years ago, Kesey dumped the old one into a swamp—a storage venue not recommended by preservationists...
...A Metaphor Too Far...
...This is an icon of America," one ex-Merry Prankster said to the AP...
...It would be nice to see it back out on the road again to bring the reality of the '60s into the 21st century...
...Good judgment, fair dealing, and the manners of a gentleman go a long way around here, and these were the mark of Jerry Ford for a quarter century in the House...
...We just want to work with people with the same ideas about the bus as we do [sic...
...We want to be sure it's on display for the most people possible...
...End of the Trip Imagine The Scrapbook's dilemma when we ran across an Associated Press account last week about the blighted efforts to restore the late Ken (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) Kesey's psychedelic bus, which seems to be dissolving into the weeds somewhere in rural Oregon...
...In 1974, as an unelected president, he pardoned Richard Nixon...
...As you might imagine, restoration efforts have not gone smoothly...
...Capitol on December 30: "Fifty-eight years ago, almost to the day, the new member from Michigan's 5th district moved into his office in the Cannon Building, and said his first hello to the congressman next door, John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts...
...Check the record...
...Even an accidental president doesn't get to the White House by decency alone...
...In 1976, he hammered Ronald Reagan in the Republican primaries as a man who couldn't start a war as governor of California but could if elected president...
...In which case, in The Scrapbook's considered opinion, Willie Nelson should save his biodiesel money and help that Hollywood restaurant owner push this icon of America safely back into the swamp where it belongs...
...They belonged to a generation that came early to great duties, and took up responsibilities readily, and shared a confidence in their country and its purposes in the world...
...He was also tough, shrewd, sometimes calculating, ambitious, and combative...
...Sad news from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Spaceship Earth," a 175-ton sculpture memorializing the late environmentalist David Brower, "has crashed to the ground...
...Adam Smith 101 The Scrapbook is delighted to recommend the latest, and by our reckoning most delightfully erudite, book from our wise, amusing, and prolific friend and contributing editor I? J. O'Rourke: On the Wealth of Nations (Atlantic Monthly, 256 pp., $21.95...
...In 1948, Ford ousted an incumbent Republican congressman...
...Ford was no wimp—and that's the point...
...A restaurant owner in Hollywood thought he had an understanding with the Kesey family to raise $100,000 to shine the 1939 International Harvester model until it sparkled...
...For those younger readers who don't know what we're talking about, here's the AP's description of this national treasure: "With a jug of LSD-laced juice in the refrigerator, clean-cut Kesey pals known as the Merry Pranksters on board and Neal Cassady, the driver in Jack Kerouac's On the Road at the wheel, the bus crossed the country from California to New York"—a journey made famous in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968...
...He has to have labored long and hard to be in a position to be selected...
...Barely three months after the $1 million sculpture was unveiled at Kennesaw State University, it collapsed in the middle of the night—all 175 tons—perhaps because of faulty glue," the paper reports...
...In that 81st Congress were four future presidents, and others who wished for that destiny...
...Alas, documentary filmmakers are not exactly besieging the Kesey homestead, and frankly, the whole project taxes The Scrapbook's customary support for historic preservation...
...He was a combination of nice guy and skilled politician...
...But that's about it...
...Probably biodegradable glue...
...If the title sounds familiar, there's a reason: This is the first in a series of volumes from Atlantic Monthly Press about "Books That Changed the World," in which distinguished authors like P.J...
...Scrapbook The Real Gerald Ford In eulogy upon eulogy after his death December 26, President Gerald Ford was remembered as decent, down to earth, caring, self-effacing, and, especially, a wonderful parent...
...Ford of Michigan aspired only to be speaker of the House, and by general agreement he would have made a fine one...
...In 1965, he challenged House Minority Leader Charles Hal-leck and took his job...
...He was much more than that...
...O'Rourke...
...For his part, Mr...
...but they seem to have encountered creative differences —you know how that works in Hollywood—and now Kesey's daughter-in-law is reluctant to continue work until a documentary film deal can be worked out...
...Vice President Cheney put it as well as any of the multiple eulogists, in his remarks at the U.S...
...But if that's all there were to Gerald Ford, one might conclude he was merely an unusually nice and modest man...
...All true...
...Thus far, the bus has been hauled from the swamp, scrubbed a little, and Willie Nelson has kindly offered to install a new biodiesel engine...
Vol. 12 • January 2007 • No. 17
