Since the Second World War:
- Two American presidents (three if you count Truman) have been known by a diminutive of their first name: Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton.
- Four American vice-presidents have been known by a diminutive of their first name: Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, Joe Biden. Three of the four remaining Republican candidates for the presidency in 2012 are known by a diminutive of their first name: Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.
- All American presidents over this time have been Christians of one persuasion or another.
- Only one British prime minister since the war has been known by a diminutive of his first name: Tony Blair. Things may be about to change with the emergence of the likes of Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband.
- With two exceptions, all British prime ministers have declared themselves to be Christians; The exceptions are Clement Atlee (agnostic) and James Callaghan (atheist).
- To the best of my knowledge, French presidents don't go in for diminutives!
- They tend overwhelmingly to be Roman Catholic, with a bit of backsliding since the time of François Mitterand.
- All 10 candidates for next month's presidential election are younger than me. This is a new trend that requires careful analysis. Twenty years ago all the presidential candidates were older than me.
The cover of "The Eye" with Nixon smiling broadly and the caption reading "No one's going to shoot me with Spiro T. Agnew next in line" is an interesting commentary on Vice President insurance.
ReplyDeletegreetings from sunny Wangaratta.
Yes indeed!
DeleteWangaratta, now there's a name to conjure with. I see that it's billed as "the Ultimate in Livability" and that it styles itself as the "Rural City of Wangaratta". Is this the embodiment of Alphonse Allais'suggestion that "cities should be built in the countryside"?! Allais is the one who said (translated into English): "To leave is to die a little, but to die is to leave a lot".
The idea of liveability, I suppose it doesn't matter how it's spelled/spelt, as I don't think it's a proper word, is from a study done by Sharon Camp and The Population Crisis Committee.
DeleteThey studied the 100 largest cities in the world and gave them a score out of 100.
A score out of ten points for percentage of children enrolled in Secondary education, murder rates out of 100,000, homes connected to electricity, homes with phones, time taken to travel from the CBD to the Airport, number of persons per room in a home and other things.
Melbourne scored 86 along with Montreal and Seattle. Melburnians triumphantly proclaimed themselves as the world's most liv(e)able city.
Nobody knew where it originated from but they were happy to say so, so the city "discovered" by Batman and whose motto is Vires A(d)quirit Eundo describing a screeching monster in the Aeneid still triumphs.
So the phrase was used for every place remotely resembling the title.
What about Mitt?
ReplyDeleteThat can't be a real name, can it?
Everybody's younger than me (sigh). Never thought it possible I might feel like the Queen Mother.
As a matter of fact, Mitt IS his real (second) name. I do my research thoroughly!
DeleteSwoon
ReplyDeleteThud