Nixonland Book Party

Nixonland Book Party, originally uploaded by Lindsay Beyerstein.

Brooklyn, NY.

The drink menu from the launch party for Rick Perlstein's new book Nixonland.

Celebrity sighting: Ira Glass from This American Life.

Comments

[jack]

One sip and you're ready to erase a tape or 12.

I heard about this book on NPR; I'm inclined to give it a whirl. To my wife's surprise and neverending amazement, I am fascinated by Nixon.

[Cass]

"To my wife's surprise and neverending amazement, I am fascinated by Nixon."

That fascination is shared by many smart people.

A Manhattan, though? Unless you attach "&#!/%!!" to the front of it, I can't think of a less appropriate cocktail.

[The Phantom]

Nay, nay, not so inappropriate.

Nixon lived in a Manhattan townhouse for a year or two, circa 1980, before buying a place out in NJ.

He liked NYC, and was often seen around town.

[jack]

Smart? Really? Me? (Preening in the mirror.)

The comment about the Manhattan is priceless, by the way. You could name a bunch of drinks Nixon would like with that prefix. "&#!/%!!" Harvardites. "&#!/%!!" Kennedys. "&#!/%!!" Congress.

[jack]

Phantom: Didn't he also live there for a while earlier, post-VP? I seem to remember him saying something about liking NYC because it's "a fast track. A person tends to atrophy unless they're on a fast track."

[The Phantom]

Jack

I believe you are correct.

[Cass]

"Mr. Nixon is contemptuous of cities in general and New York in particular. 'Goddamn New York,' he says, adding that it is filled with 'Jews and Catholics and blacks and Puerto Ricans.' There is a 'law of the jungle where some things don't survive,' so, Mr. Nixon says: 'Maybe New York shouldn't survive. Maybe it should go through a cycle of destruction.'"

(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E2D8123CF937A25751C1A9659C8B63)

Of course, that one may have come after a few Manhattans.

[jack]

There I go again. Total recall of minutiae that nobody will pay me for knowing.

My favorite Nixon story, I think, is of his disastrous Latin American tour while VP. In a hostile crowd, someone spat on him. As the guy passed, Nixon was able to spot him and do a quick maneuver allowing to give the guy a good, swift, hard kick in the shins. "Nothing I did all day made me feel better," he remembered.

[The Phantom]

Cass

Well, I guess he didn't like NYC -that- much!

Jack

Love that!

The strange thing about Nixon is that, with all his real and imagined enemies/ enemies lists, is that this was the guy who

opened up contact with China, an astonishing, world changing feat at the time

ended US participation in the Vietnam War ( would not have happened without the China opening )

established the US Environmental Protection Administration

started affirmative action

negotiated detente/arms control with the USSR