Posted on 06/05/2004 2:57:31 PM PDT by freedom44
REAGAN GLOSSARY • Reaganomics: Newspapers and magazines applied the name to the president’s early economic policies. His plan combined tax cuts with reductions in welfare and unemployment programs, and included a large increase in defense spending. • Strategic Defense Initiative: Often referred to as "Star Wars," the proposed defense system would strike down nuclear missiles aimed at the United States before they could hit the ground. • Supply-side economics: The theory that government can stimulate the economy by cutting taxes and encouraging investment by private citizens and businesses, which will grow the economy, bring in greater tax revenue and reduce government deficits. • Teflon president: Democratic Rep. Patricia Schroeder of Colorado coined the phrase in 1983. The idea came to her while she was cooking breakfast for her kids. As she slid the eggs out of the frying pan, she reflected on the way political accountability slid off Ronald Reagan. He could get into politically "dirty" areas but emerge with his reputation and popularity unscathed. She used the idea later that day: "Mr. Speaker, after carefully watching Ronald Reagan, he is attempting a great breakthrough in political technology - he has been perfecting the Teflon-coated presidency."
• His nicknames were Dutch, the Great Communicator and the Gipper. • According to Mr. Reagan’s autobiographies, he received the nickname "Dutch" soon after his birth. His father said that he looked like "a fat little Dutchman." Mr. Reagan has also said that he got the nickname because of the "Dutch boy haircut" his mother gave him when he was a toddler. • He was called the Great Communicator by the press because reporters marveled at his ability to transmit his "message" to the public. • Mr. Reagan was the oldest president in history. He was 69 when he took office and 77 when he left. • He was the first president who had been divorced. • He was the only president to be wounded and survive an assassination attempt. He kept the .22-caliber bullet under a glass dome inscribed: "This IS It!" in his office. • To avoid long encounters with the press, he often took reporters’ questions with his helicopter roaring in the background. • He was the only president to head a labor union, the Screen Actors Guild. • He was the only president born in Illinois. • He did not require makeup in the movies because of his ruddy complexion. • In 1984, Mr. Reagan carried every state but Minnesota, the home of his opponent Walter Mondale. Prior to Mr. Reagan, only one president had carried 49 states: Richard Nixon who lost only Massachusetts in 1972. • He saved 77 people as a lifeguard. • He married his first wife, Jane Wyman, at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, Calif. The ceremony was at Wee Kirk o’ the Heather, a replica of a small 14th-century Scottish church. Couples still use the quaint chapel. • Actor William Holden was Mr. Reagan’s best man when he married Nancy Davis. • On Mr. Reagan’s one loan-out, to MGM for The Bad Man (1941), Lionel Barrymore ran over his feet with his wheelchair. • He outsmarted Errol Flynn, a known scene-stealer, during the filming of Santa Fe Trail. When Mr. Flynn tried to place him behind taller actors, Mr. Reagan scraped together dirt with his feet to form a small hill. He ended up being the tallest man in the scene. • He used a line he spoke in Kings Row - "Where’s the rest of me?"- as the title of his 1965 autobiography. • He was the first president to wear contact lenses. He began using them at the start of his acting career shortly after they first became available. • He broke his thighbone in six places when he slid into first base at a celebrity baseball game. • His first car was a 1934 Nash Lafayette coupe • His first job was digging ditches. A construction contractor hired the 14-year-old for 10 hours a day, six days a week, at 35 cents an hour. He saved the money (about $200) for his college tuition. • His favorite movie roles were George Gipp "The Gipper" in >Knute Rockne, All American ; Drake McHugh in Kings Row. His least favorite role was Tom Bates in That Hagen Girl.
SWEET TOOTH • Mr. Reagan’s passion for jelly beans began when he stopped smoking a pipe in the 1960s. While he was the governor of California, he started bringing jars of the candy to staff meetings. • Goelitz Confectionery created a new flavor, blueberry, for his inauguration in 1980 and sent him 361/2 tons of red (Very Cherry), white (coconut) and blue Jelly Belly beans to celebrate. • During his presidency, crystal jars of the candy were placed around the White House, and he kept a jar on his desk. Dignitaries received candy jars, decorated with the presidential seal, in blue satin boxes. • The beans also held a lofty position in the administration. "They had to create a special holder on Air Force One so that they would stay in place," said Tomi Holt, spokeswoman for the Jelly Belly Candy Co. • His favorite flavor was licorice.
IN THE ARMY NOW Mr. Reagan joined the Army in 1942, but poor eyesight kept him from battle duty. As a lieutenant and, later, a captain, he oversaw the making of combat training films. Capt. Reagan signed actor Clark Gable’s discharge papers.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds -- and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of -- wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
--John Gillespie Magee, Jr. (1922-1941)
Mmmmm. Jelly Bellies.
you can tell a lot about a man by how he eats his jelly beans.
For me, it's by the handful. Not sure what that says, though. LOL!
Gotta get some Jelly Bellies in memory of the great one. Haven't had many since starting Atkins.
Prepare the Viking Kitties!
Why don't you put that pole where the sun don't shine?
So I see the perverts at DU have linked to this thread through their lame site.
Careful...
The last great president (no offense President Bush) has passed into God's waiting arms. May he be blessed in his eternal reward, and may his family know God's love and peace in their time of sorrow.
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