Last week, as the Los Angeles Angels entered the American League playoffs, I wrote about the team’s first foray into the postseason thirty years ago, when former President Nixon was a regular at what was then Anaheim Stadium, and spectators were not allowed to wear Nixon masks at the games.
Now the Angels are locked in mortal battle with the New York Yankees for the AL pennant. It’s hard to say whether the high visibility of RN’s favorite team has been a factor, but, with two weeks yet to go before Halloween, masks featuring his face are showing up again in the news.
Around 2 am on October 1, a student leaving the University of New Mexico library in Albuquerque was confronted by someone wielding a knife and wearing a Nixon mask. The student struck his assailant, then passed out, and when he awoke found he was on the ground, the knife next to him, and the assailant gone. His wallet and other valuables were untouched.
Then last Wednesday in Ridgeland, Wisconsin, a man with a Nixon mask robbed a bank of $1000. Hopefully, the next time my readers hear of the famed mask, it will be on the face of a neighborhood ten-year-old and the only thing being demanded will be candy.