And We Thought He Was Just Talking To His Putter
Tongues were wagging after President Clinton, while teeing off for a round of golf during his Martha’s Vineyard vacation last week, was overheard saying: “Don’t go too far right. Sit down, Alice!”
The initial speculation among media observers was that the chief executive had started naming his golf balls.
Then the Washington Post opined that the president was actually making a derogatory reference to himself, implying he was womanly because he made a weak shot.
Finally, a reader informed San Francisco Chronicle columnist Leah Garcik that the phrase appeared to be loosely borrowed from British golfer Peter Alliss, who during Ryder Cup competition a few decades ago missed a putt and said sarcastically, “Nice putt, Alliss.”
Loose talk
ABC’s Peter Jennings, on complaints about bad news (in Parents magazine): “These things that happen in the world should ruin our dinner. Parents must find a way to address these issues as they come up. Changing channels does not do that.”
He’d tell Clinton, ‘Come on, buddy, hack it!’
Buddy Hackett turns 73 today.
Doesn’t he have enough skeletons in his closet?
During a field trip near Livingston, Mont., last week, House Speaker Newt Gingrich found what’s believed to be a thighbone from an unknown species of sauropod, or long-necked dinosaur. “I’m like a little kid at a country fair,” said Gingrich, a fossil freak who keeps a T. Rex skull in his office. “This is what I would do if I had enough spare time.”
She teaches people to read her husband’s lips
Reigning Miss America Dawn Holland has chosen Barbara Bush to receive the annual Woman of Achievement award at this year’s pageant, which includes a $25,000 award. Holland cited the former first lady’s work with literacy groups.
And next, she’ll start working on her face lift
Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards says she’s been having the time of her life since losing her re-election bid to Republican George W. Bush two years ago. The 63-year-old Richards, who has been pumping iron with a trainer “who works me harder than a funeral home fan in July,” can now leg-press 180 pounds.
Guess he knows all about sources of static, too
When former President Jimmy Carter went into the studio to record an audio version of his upcoming book, “Sources of Strength,” he wore a special shirt - one made of soft knit cotton, so the microphone wouldn’t pick up the scratchy sounds of fabric as he turned the pages.
Just a grim reminder of Der Fuehrer’s water loo
Walter Cronkite reveals in People magazine that one of his most treasured souvenirs is “a piece of broken tile, porcelain, shiny on one side, broken on the other. It was a piece of Hitler’s urinal. I picked it up at his Eastern headquarters in Poland right after the bombing.”
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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino