Some True Words Spoken In Jest

For those of us who grew up memorizing every word —indeed, every inflection— on Tom Lehrer’s LPs, the name and accomplishments of the late doctor Samuel Gall are as familiar (and as funny) today as they were the first time we heard them on An Evening...

The Canard That Will Not Die

RN’s “secret plan” to end the Vietnam war is the Dracula of canards. No matter how many wooden stakes are nailed through its nasty heart, it’s up again at first light, brushing off the dirt and walking the land ready to be cited in yet another...

Nixonland Nitpick 1

Whatever its virtues, Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland contains a number of factual errors. In the weeks ahead, I shall note some of them. The first deals with the 1950 Democratic senatorial primary in Florida (p. 34): George Smathers beat Florida senator Claude...

A New Addition to the Ranks of Nixon Books

In today’s Washington Post Book World, NPR host Scott Simon writes a glowing review of Stephen L. Carter’s new novel of political and family intrigues in the 1960s, Palace Council. Mr. Carter, a professor at the Yale Law School and a bestselling and...

In Search Of The Cherry Tree

In December 1799, George Washington, the foremost of America’s founding fathers, died of laryngitis and pseumonia at age 67, universally mourned by his countrymen.  The next year Mason Locke Weems, popularly known as “Parson” Weems (he was a...