Chris Andrews: The Vance image is enough to remind any woman why they should (permanently?!) put "Men on PAUSE."
It never hurts to take a pause . . .
As far as the Second, soon "First" Gentleman. at your challenge, I have tried to voice "FGOTUS" -- usually comes out with spit or obscene. Hmm. Alright, you have "Fig" and you have the name "Otis", or the combination "Fig-Otis". Not too pretty, but it takes the abbreviation at face value.
Why not "President of the United States, Kamala Harris and the First Spouse, Doug Emhoff."
That is both accurate and corresponds with English as spoken everyday.
"First Gentleman" sounds rather artificial.
Look at the House of Representatives. We use the terms "Gentleman" -- usually WAY too polite for the particular Congressman -- for the Men in the House.
Now, generally, in common day speech it is "a Lady" and "a Gentleman".
So, in the House, the logical address would be, respectively, "The Gentleman from North Carolina," or "The Lady from North Dakota."
But the House had to reciprocate.
So, the House came up with awkward neologisms.
"The Gentleman from North Carolina. " "The Gentlelady from North Dakota."
Now, Chris, WHEN in daily life would you address one of your girlfriends THAT way.
"My Gentleman friend, Jim, . . ."
"My Lady friend, Jane . . ."
But would you EVER:
"My Gentle-Lady friend, Jane . . ."
Hmm. Doesn't sound right, somehow.
But that's how they do it in the House.
No wonder the House is NOT in order . . .
Want to think about something frightful?! "What-me-Worry" Michael Johnson (alias Alfred E. Neumann with a Bible) is THIRD in line for the Presidency.
Joe Biden; then Kamala Harris, then . . . Alfred E. Neumann ("What me Worry?!" -- alias Michael Johnson).
Now THAT should keep one up at night.
Michael Johnson is a creep. Maybe one could call him, from "Falling in Line of Accession: Third [for Presidency] of the United States", whose abbreviation would conveniently be FLATUS.
Well, the First Lady is "FLOTUS," which is a lot better than the abbreviation for Johnson, above, because it sounds like she keeps us afloat. Like, Float-Us.
For Edna Wilson, wife of Woodrow Wilson, she did keep America afloat for the League of Nations when her husband was suffering behind the scenes from life-threatening health upsets.
For the husband of the President, I think we ought to break from unsightly symmetry and just call him "First Spouse." I cannot make the First-Gentleman of the United States thing work phonetically.
Symmetry works only if it is pretty. Lady and Gentleman. Very good. In the House: "Gentleman; Gentle-Lady." At best, this usage is rigid and unnatural. No danger that nomenclature will catch in any new songs coming out.
First Lady. We are used to that.
President's Spouse -- that works well for me. "First Gentleman." I could live with that. "FirGet-US" -- that might not be the message you want to send -- "Forget Us."
Let's not corner ourselves into an uncomfortable symmetry.
For what it is worth, that occurs to me. "FGOTUS" comes out "forgot us." Let's try something different, after all.
President Wilson had had a stroke, and was incompetent to run the country, and as you imply, his wife did cover for him. Or maybe she did it for herself. Hard to pin down her motive, although someone may have done that, somewhere.
David Holzman: Your information about Ms. Edna Wilson is quite interesting. Makes me want to read a biography.
Woodrow Wilson -- I really, really wish Woodrow Wilson had risen above Confederate racism. President Wilson re-segregated the Post Office and brought "Birth of a Nation" to the White House.
There is so much that seems so noble in the character of Woodrow Wilson. In Europe, I have thought since my childhood in the 1950s that President Wilson was a grand man of peace, whose vision of the League of Nations may have had the potential to stop Mussolini in Ethiopia, which might have stymied fascism and Nazism.
But in the end, President Wilson's vision of a strong League of Nations was defeated in favor of a weakened one and a strong vindictive Alliance that seemed to contribute towards pushing a proud German to its perverted extremes.
I have tended to honor Edna Wilson.
Thank you for starting dialogue on persons who are precious but ambivalent.
I suspect there are books that deal with how his administration functioned after he was no longer compos mentis, but I haven't investigated beyond reading brief accounts. But my recollection, growing up in a politically aware family, was that Wilson was respected. As for Edna Wilson, she must have been skilled to run the country and keep people thinking it was her husband at the helm.
I don't know about FGOTUS. That could come out sounding like "forgot us".
First Gentleman works for me. It sounds good, and it's definitely the male counterpart of "First Lady."
In other matters, when the Kennedy/Nixon race was in high gear, my mother took me with her when she went to vote. I was 7 at the time, in second grade, and having my first political arguments, with my best friend Ralphie, whose maternal grandfather was a cofounder of Nordstrom's, the first of which was in Seattle, where we were living at the time, and whose mother was interior decorator for the wealthy of Seattle. Ralphie, as you might imagine from that information, was for Nixon. I was for Kennedy. (My mother's uncle Philip Hornbein had run the Colorado Democratic Party for most of the first half of the 20th century.)
I have a memory of going into the voting place with my mother, and asking her, as we were walking to the voting booth, who she was going to vote for. I knew my parents were for Kennedy, and I'm not sure whether I was interested in the down-ballot people she was going to vote for. I was well aware of the race for governor and probably at least one other race, and in fact, I'm pretty certain I had removed someone's Andrews (R) sign from their lawn on Raspberry Hill, the very steep hill on which my brother and I walked down on our way to school, and up on our way home. I think she was intent on showing me the ritual of voting, and one aspect of that is, of course, that one is not supposed to talk about who one is voting for at the polls, and she told me something to that effect.
In any case, the ritual felt somber and very important at the time, but afterwards, I didn't think much about that, until now.
I was a bit upset the next morning in school, as at that time, at least among some of my classmates, JFK's victory seemed uncertain--with Marilyn Northway-Meyer, who like 2/3s or even 3/4 of the kids in this excellent private school, a feeder to the school where Bill Gates went to high school were from Republican families--insisting that the Republicans were going to demand a recount. I didn't know what to think. I can't remember discussing this with my parents, but I strongly suspect I brought it up when I got home.
How about THE MAN
The maga meltdown! The schadenfreude!
Chris Andrews: The Vance image is enough to remind any woman why they should (permanently?!) put "Men on PAUSE."
It never hurts to take a pause . . .
As far as the Second, soon "First" Gentleman. at your challenge, I have tried to voice "FGOTUS" -- usually comes out with spit or obscene. Hmm. Alright, you have "Fig" and you have the name "Otis", or the combination "Fig-Otis". Not too pretty, but it takes the abbreviation at face value.
Why not "President of the United States, Kamala Harris and the First Spouse, Doug Emhoff."
That is both accurate and corresponds with English as spoken everyday.
"First Gentleman" sounds rather artificial.
Look at the House of Representatives. We use the terms "Gentleman" -- usually WAY too polite for the particular Congressman -- for the Men in the House.
Now, generally, in common day speech it is "a Lady" and "a Gentleman".
So, in the House, the logical address would be, respectively, "The Gentleman from North Carolina," or "The Lady from North Dakota."
But the House had to reciprocate.
So, the House came up with awkward neologisms.
"The Gentleman from North Carolina. " "The Gentlelady from North Dakota."
Now, Chris, WHEN in daily life would you address one of your girlfriends THAT way.
"My Gentleman friend, Jim, . . ."
"My Lady friend, Jane . . ."
But would you EVER:
"My Gentle-Lady friend, Jane . . ."
Hmm. Doesn't sound right, somehow.
But that's how they do it in the House.
No wonder the House is NOT in order . . .
Want to think about something frightful?! "What-me-Worry" Michael Johnson (alias Alfred E. Neumann with a Bible) is THIRD in line for the Presidency.
Joe Biden; then Kamala Harris, then . . . Alfred E. Neumann ("What me Worry?!" -- alias Michael Johnson).
Now THAT should keep one up at night.
Michael Johnson is a creep. Maybe one could call him, from "Falling in Line of Accession: Third [for Presidency] of the United States", whose abbreviation would conveniently be FLATUS.
Well, the First Lady is "FLOTUS," which is a lot better than the abbreviation for Johnson, above, because it sounds like she keeps us afloat. Like, Float-Us.
For Edna Wilson, wife of Woodrow Wilson, she did keep America afloat for the League of Nations when her husband was suffering behind the scenes from life-threatening health upsets.
For the husband of the President, I think we ought to break from unsightly symmetry and just call him "First Spouse." I cannot make the First-Gentleman of the United States thing work phonetically.
Symmetry works only if it is pretty. Lady and Gentleman. Very good. In the House: "Gentleman; Gentle-Lady." At best, this usage is rigid and unnatural. No danger that nomenclature will catch in any new songs coming out.
First Lady. We are used to that.
President's Spouse -- that works well for me. "First Gentleman." I could live with that. "FirGet-US" -- that might not be the message you want to send -- "Forget Us."
Let's not corner ourselves into an uncomfortable symmetry.
For what it is worth, that occurs to me. "FGOTUS" comes out "forgot us." Let's try something different, after all.
You get A for effort and creativity.
President Wilson had had a stroke, and was incompetent to run the country, and as you imply, his wife did cover for him. Or maybe she did it for herself. Hard to pin down her motive, although someone may have done that, somewhere.
David Holzman: Your information about Ms. Edna Wilson is quite interesting. Makes me want to read a biography.
Woodrow Wilson -- I really, really wish Woodrow Wilson had risen above Confederate racism. President Wilson re-segregated the Post Office and brought "Birth of a Nation" to the White House.
There is so much that seems so noble in the character of Woodrow Wilson. In Europe, I have thought since my childhood in the 1950s that President Wilson was a grand man of peace, whose vision of the League of Nations may have had the potential to stop Mussolini in Ethiopia, which might have stymied fascism and Nazism.
But in the end, President Wilson's vision of a strong League of Nations was defeated in favor of a weakened one and a strong vindictive Alliance that seemed to contribute towards pushing a proud German to its perverted extremes.
I have tended to honor Edna Wilson.
Thank you for starting dialogue on persons who are precious but ambivalent.
I suspect there are books that deal with how his administration functioned after he was no longer compos mentis, but I haven't investigated beyond reading brief accounts. But my recollection, growing up in a politically aware family, was that Wilson was respected. As for Edna Wilson, she must have been skilled to run the country and keep people thinking it was her husband at the helm.
I don't know about FGOTUS. That could come out sounding like "forgot us".
First Gentleman works for me. It sounds good, and it's definitely the male counterpart of "First Lady."
In other matters, when the Kennedy/Nixon race was in high gear, my mother took me with her when she went to vote. I was 7 at the time, in second grade, and having my first political arguments, with my best friend Ralphie, whose maternal grandfather was a cofounder of Nordstrom's, the first of which was in Seattle, where we were living at the time, and whose mother was interior decorator for the wealthy of Seattle. Ralphie, as you might imagine from that information, was for Nixon. I was for Kennedy. (My mother's uncle Philip Hornbein had run the Colorado Democratic Party for most of the first half of the 20th century.)
I have a memory of going into the voting place with my mother, and asking her, as we were walking to the voting booth, who she was going to vote for. I knew my parents were for Kennedy, and I'm not sure whether I was interested in the down-ballot people she was going to vote for. I was well aware of the race for governor and probably at least one other race, and in fact, I'm pretty certain I had removed someone's Andrews (R) sign from their lawn on Raspberry Hill, the very steep hill on which my brother and I walked down on our way to school, and up on our way home. I think she was intent on showing me the ritual of voting, and one aspect of that is, of course, that one is not supposed to talk about who one is voting for at the polls, and she told me something to that effect.
In any case, the ritual felt somber and very important at the time, but afterwards, I didn't think much about that, until now.
I was a bit upset the next morning in school, as at that time, at least among some of my classmates, JFK's victory seemed uncertain--with Marilyn Northway-Meyer, who like 2/3s or even 3/4 of the kids in this excellent private school, a feeder to the school where Bill Gates went to high school were from Republican families--insisting that the Republicans were going to demand a recount. I didn't know what to think. I can't remember discussing this with my parents, but I strongly suspect I brought it up when I got home.