Magnificent work, Dolly! It looks beautiful. (And damned fine HTML.)
Any delay to get the thread up was all mine -- I worked Dolly's deadline from last night into noon today. Dolly gave it a fine recovery, and here we go into a more GLORIOUS FOURTH for this beautiful thread.
Dolly, I got caught up researching news of past Fourths. As best I can tell, the meaning and intensity Fourths of July come and go with bad times and reformist presidencies. Until WWI got underway, patriotism waned under Woodrow Wilson. It was near absent during the Great Depression, and also during the 1970s. A terrifically sad Fourth of July story I found was of Chiang Kai-shek, who issued this statement for the 1946 celebration:
"On this Independence Day of the United States, I and all Chinese people express our respect for your Revolutionary heroes and the people of your country who have taken precious part in the stuggle to protect peace and democracy... the United States always is willing to help friendly neighbors realize their ideals of democracy. It assures us that, because of this close cooperation among the peoples of the United States and other peace-loving peoples, a new era of freedom and equality will definitely come over the world."
Oh my. Well, anyway, Happy Fourth of July to Taiwan, too!
And a very Happy Fourth of July to all your wonderful people.
I am in awe with "what you know".. and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your fine thoughts and knowledge with us here for this thread.
I sent out to my Email list the link to the thread. AOL was not happy & suspended my account. I am back but a little POd at AOL. Okay, okay so I exceeded the regulation for minimum of 50 per/mailing (I think I sent to a couple hundred)
Michael, I was afraid to put that blockquote in 5 more times.. We have all had nightmares here with stray blockquotes & centers!!!! With sufficient time I would have taken a chance. What you sent me looked so nice (even title etc) and I was racing against time. The last little error I had the other day took close to 8 hours to locate!
BTW - how was tennis? either it is a lot cooler in the DC area or you are made of stronger stuff than I am. In this hot weather, I head for water - don't look for ways to sweat more!!!
ALL .. Michael has written a couple books (one of which I have read & feel pretty smug in knowing things about Taft, I would have NEVER known otherwise)
His books are:
"Stretching It: The Story of the Limousine" (2002)
"William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency, 1909-1913" (2003)
and currently preparing a book on the 1912 election, working title, "The Constitution's Bodyguard," about William Howard Taft's defense of constitutionalism during the election of 1912.
He states he "loves automobiles principally because I see in and in their history them the great American spirit. "
Here is a pix of Nicollo & me taken the night before the Inauguration at a DC FReeper get together
