Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

Rethinking Mrs. Nixon

I had surgery on Monday, September 17th, and am recovering at an okay pace, not as fast as I'd like.

Luckily, to aid me in my recovery, the two documentaries on Pat Nixon that David ordered for me arrived the week before surgery. I borrowed a VCR from my neighbor to the east, as both of ours were broken, and I had discarded them. I found the A&E biography from 1999 to be very interesting, as it included a few clips of Mrs. Nixon speaking, and there is a charming moment of footage showing Mrs. Nixon during a White House Christmas tour, where she desribes an exchange she and the President had had earlier in the day: "You know, my husband was going to break a little piece off [of a gingerbread house decoration] this morning to eat, and I said, 'Don't you dare!' *laugh*"

Of all the facts and dates the videos shared, they both brought across the idea that this First Lady was a very ordinary, yet uncommon, woman.

--Josh
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