TheBanyanTree: Mr. President's Shoe-ducking Skills

[Lalinda]

When I woke up this morning, there was one thought burning in my mind.  
I was as excited as a child on Christmas morning and I couldn't wait to 
get up and turn on the Today show to see if there were more flying shoes 
hurled in the direction of the President of the United States of America.

When I saw this yesterday, and when I say, saw, I mean that when the 
picture came up on the TV, the absolute first thing I saw was the 
President of the United States of America ducking and looking 
surprised.  Then, what luck!  It happened again!  Thank my lucky starts 
we have DVR so I could re-wind it and play it a few times.  My acute 
observation is this: good reflexes.  The President has obviously had 
some experience in ducking soaring shoes or flying objects, so my first 
assumption is that he has gotten his practice perhaps at home.  Mrs. 
President is handy with the books, I understand, and a well-thrown book 
can cause a lot of damage, so that is my current fantasy of choice.

Jumping to a conclusion, I know, so let's give the President the benefit 
of the doubt.  Perhaps he has had training in this area, like a kind of 
pre-presidential boot camp where upon election, the President begins a 
Secret Service-run program designed to outfit him with necessary skills 
to prevent mishaps of all intensities.  The need for this program would 
most likely have become apparent during the presidency of Gerald Ford.  
If I need to explain this, then you are too young to be reading this 
article.  If you must, pause to google "Gerald Ford boo-boos."

So, President Ford was not the most graceful president we have had the 
opportunity to witness sustain injury,/ televised/, but he seemed like 
an okay guy.  At the very least, he seemed to have behaved himself, or 
we probably would've heard by now. After all, he followed Nixon and with 
all of the scandal accompanying /him/, it was rather a relief to have a 
president who was sort of, forgive me?  Boring.  Gerald Ford was a nap 
in the post-modern history of the United States and perhaps even the 
world, were they paying attention, but Betty Ford sure made her mark and 
her legacy lives on in the way of 28 day programs in luxurious 
settings.  In my imagination, anyway. 

To make things even sillier, my husband told me that one of the papers 
carried a massive headline, "LAME DUCK!" They were having a very lucky 
news day, that paper.  In any case, I'm glad that I didn't have to see 
any blood first thing in the morning and the President seemed a bit 
amused while continuing to serve another day in the countdown to his 
handover. 

I'll bet Betty threw shoes at Gerald.