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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

All He Really Had To Say Was: ‘I Beg Your Pardon’

Compiled By Staff Writer Rick Bo

Not long ago, we told you how John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon actually were pals.

Now comes John F. Kennedy Jr. to reveal a rather embarrassing moment from a night with Nixon following his father’s assassination.

John-John told on CNBC’s “Politics With Chris Matthews” how he, sister Caroline and mom Jacqueline were dining with then-President Nixon when Caroline bet he couldn’t last the evening without either spilling his milk or having his shirttail untucked.

“I’d gotten through most of the dinner, and my shirttail was in and my milk was upright,” Kennedy recalled.

“I think we were at dessert when something caught my attention and my milk went all over (Nixon’s) lap. He didn’t even blink. He just wiped it up, and I kind of just died slowly in the corner.”

Loose talk

Essayist Florence King, on Princess Diana (in The National Review): “Any woman who goes on television and discusses her affairs, betrayals, suicide attempts and vomiting habits, and then says, ‘I’m a very strong person,’ is an American.”

He could teach John how to keep a cool hand

George Kennedy turns 69 today.

He kept boldly going back, again and again

Jordan’s Prince Abdullah will make a guest appearance on the March 11 episode of “Star Trek: Voyager.” His highness told TV Guide: “I grew up on ‘Star Trek.’ In the army I was stuck in the desert for a year and a half and all we had was a TV monitor and VCR. I brought along my video collection of the original series and watched it every night.”

Today’s rulers seem downright straight

Speaking of Princess Di, royal scandals just aren’t the same anymore, laments British author Christopher Simon Sykes. As he told W magazine: “Nowadays everything the aristocracy does is normal by society’s standards - heroin, cocaine, theft. To find a good old-fashioned naughty boy is very difficult.”

But we don’t suppose he’ll be starring in it

“Anonymous,” the mysterious author of the best-selling novel “Primary Colors,” a thinly veiled fictional account of President Clinton’s 1992 campaign, has signed a movie deal for more than $1 million, according to the New York Times.

We hear he’s partial to ‘Gone with the Wind’

Forget the Oscars. What are the Republican presidential candidates’ favorite flicks? Forbes, Pat Buchanan and Bob Dornan all list “Braveheart,” Bob Dole likes “The American President,” Richard Lugar picks “Apollo 13,” Lamar Alexander names “The Madness of King George,” and dearly departed Phil Gramm declined to choose one.

We’d sing it, but it would be a little flat

Humorist Calvin Trillin offered the following campaign theme song for Forbes in The Nation, to the tune of “My Heart Belongs to Daddy”: “I’ll make sure that/Our tax is flat,/Because I’m a populist laddie./My trust fund, though,/Is tax-free dough/’Cause it’s all I have of Daddy.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino