Measuring the Drapes

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 10:17 AM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 9:30 AM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
>>
>>        The Washington Post today has an article on political references
>> to presidential candidates measuring the drapes for the White House as a
>> way to criticize overconfidence,
>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/22/AR200810
>> 2203446.html.  The Post takes it back to 1980.  Can we do better?
>
> Shows up earlier with "curtains".
>
> ---
> Chicago Tribune, Jan. 4, 1976, p.I12/3 [profile of Donald Rumsfeld]
> Kissinger had quipped that he found it necessary to announce that he was
> signing on with Ford through '76 because "Something had to be done. Mrs.
> (Elliott) Richardson and Mrs. Laird were running in and out of my office
> measuring it for curtains, and Rumsfeld too was coming in to measure."
> ---
> Hartford Courant, Dec. 22, 1978, p. C27/1
> [UPI story, describing Canadian political cartoon]
> Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau sits scowling in an armchair at home as
> Conservative Party leader Joe Clark -- his wife Maureen busying herself in the
> background -- leans over and says, "We have come to measure the curtains."
> ---

---
Washington Post, Apr. 21, 1974, H1/2
[Art Buchwald imagines a conversation between Gerald and Betty Ford during the
Watergate scandal]
"What are all those swatches on the floor?"
"I was just looking at drapery material. You know the drapes in the Lincoln room
are so ugly."
"Why are you looking at drapery material for the Lincoln room, Betty?"
"You have to order this stuff six months in advance. You can't just get them by
calling up Macy's."
"Betty, I don't think you should be ordering drapes for the White House, even if
it takes six months to get them. If I've told you once I've told you a hundred
times there is absolutely no way I will be President of the United States."
"Then why do you keep standing in front of a mirror every night in a morning
coat with your hand on a Bible repeating 'So help me God.'" [etc.]
---

--Ben Zimmer

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