My colleague “Lee Sigelman”:http://www.themonkeycage.org/2007/12/annals_of_ignorance_in_high_pl.html, at _The Monkey Cage_:
In 1993, I was contacted by Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, who was then president of this fair university. He said that he had recently dined with a prominent U.S. Senator who had agreed to give a speech about the U.S. presidency. This senator (who will remain unnamed here) told Trachtenberg that he was a bit nervous about giving this speech because he wasn’t an expert on the presidency. Never fear, Trachtenberg replied, we’ve got this hot new guy in our political science department. I’ll send him over and he can brief you. And so Trachtenberg called me.
I immediately enlisted the involvement of a colleague who was teaching our presidency course, and at the appointed hour we trooped over to the Cosmos Club for our date with destiny.
The senator was obviously preoccupied with what apparently would be his major decision of the day — the selection of an appropriate bottle of wine. With that preliminary finally completed after only half an hour or so, he turned to the task at hand. Well, he declared, because he had spent some time in England, he thought it would be a nice touch to talk not only about the U.S. but about England as well. And then: “I know something about the President of the United States, but I don’t know much about the President of England. What can you tell me about the President of England?”
I swear that the foregoing is true, and I have a witness.
{ 29 comments }
Stuart 12.14.07 at 6:45 pm
Hmm, so would it be the Republic of England, or the English Republic. I could go either way on this.
Barry 12.14.07 at 6:57 pm
His name is Fred, President IV of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland (part thereof), the Channel Islands, and a Timeshare in Bermuda.
A. Y. Mous 12.14.07 at 7:02 pm
The President of England does not preside. She resides.
Kieran Healy 12.14.07 at 7:15 pm
For all practical matters of geopolitical importance, the President of England is the President of the United States.
P O'Neill 12.14.07 at 7:32 pm
Teh Google sez that Trachtenberg is pals with retired US Senator Jim Sasser from Tennessee.
Lee Sigelman 12.14.07 at 8:31 pm
To p o’neill:
I’m not tellin’, but don’t jump to conclusions: Steve Trachtenberg knows lots of senators.
Matt Kuzma 12.14.07 at 8:51 pm
Given that the sole qualification for being an elected official is roughly identical to that of being Homecoming King/Queen, I don’t think you should be the least bit surprised by this. Horrified? Yes. Surprised? No.
The Next to Last Pope 12.14.07 at 9:01 pm
Boy, if a Senator had asked me about the President of England I would have given him lots of really good facts for his talk. Did you know the President of England owns all of the swans on the Thames and can eat one any time he wants? It true.
harry b 12.14.07 at 9:32 pm
More seriously, it seems to me that the inhabitants of US Senate seats must be almost uniquely diverse in their intellectual capacities. In what other institution do 100 people at the same level of employment vary so much? Aha — I know, the old House of Lords, when we still had all those hereditary peers. But the low end of the curve at least usually refrained from turning up.
Drake 12.14.07 at 9:50 pm
Isn’t it properly the President of the U.K.?
Warren Terra 12.14.07 at 10:05 pm
#4 reminds me of a Jeremy Hardy line (from the start of his 2003 radio series):
It’s a new year and I can’t recall one when Britain had to make such difficult and dangerous decisions. Fortunately, another country makes them for us. It’s like having our own national lifestyle guru.
(I also agree with #8 that a great opportunity for sabotage was missed).
a very public sociologist 12.14.07 at 10:05 pm
Aw, for a moment I thought Crooked Timber was going to disassemble into lolcat speak. :(
Colin Danby 12.14.07 at 11:00 pm
Invisible erudition
Michael Bérubé 12.15.07 at 1:31 am
Did you know the President of England owns all of the swans on the Thames and can eat one any time he wants?
I thought the Missouri Compromise of 1688 placed the swans under the protection of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and gave the President jurisdiction over the Beefeaters? or was that the Diet of Worms?
Henry (not the famous one) 12.15.07 at 2:33 am
Good time for everyone to brush up their knowledge of Black Rod, Gold Stick and Silver Stick, and all the other ceremonial posts. That might be your Senator!
By the way, does anyone have any records which Senators were speaking at the Cosmos Club a few years ago? Inquiring minds . . .
djw 12.15.07 at 6:57 am
In grad school (Political Science), a beginning of the year wine and cheese event for the dept, welcoming new students and faculty. I few grad students chatting in the corner, hotshot new assistant prof. introduces himself. Gets around to asking what we study. A friend of mine says “I study Indonesia.” Hotshot asst Prof: “Fascinating. Which one?” my friend, after a brief moment of stunned silence: “The big one.” Asst Prof nods knowingly and toddles off.
chris y 12.15.07 at 11:32 am
The correct term is Lord Protector. The office is currently in abeyance due to temporary constitutional difficulties.
rea 12.15.07 at 12:21 pm
the Diet of Worms
KING CLAUDIUS: Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius?
HAMLET: At supper.
KING CLAUDIUS: At supper! where?
HAMLET: Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him.
Michael Bérubé 12.15.07 at 3:59 pm
Weird coincidence. Wasn’t Hamlet the President of Denmark?
Jonathan Edelstein 12.15.07 at 4:02 pm
Isn’t it properly the President of the U.K.?
For pete’s sake, surely you know that the UK has a Supreme Potentate and each of its autonomous component parts has a President. It was only last month that the President of Cornwall and all his interpreters visited this country; have you forgotten already?
Alex 12.15.07 at 5:01 pm
The office of the Presidency has been vacant for some years, ever since the then incumbent went out to lunch and never returned. There has been considerable debate as to whether his disappearance is permanent, or whether he will one day return; so a sign reading “Missing, presumed fed” has been placed on his desk.
freshlysqueezedcynic 12.15.07 at 5:10 pm
“The correct term is Lord Protector. The office is currently in abeyance due to temporary constitutional difficulties.”
Chris y wins.
Jim 12.15.07 at 7:55 pm
the Diet of Worms?
I thought the Diet of Worms was a torture from the Tower of London that Duncan Hunter wanted to replace the Lemon Chicken and Rice Pilaf Menu at Gitmo.
(and that anonymous Senator deserves to be outed… for the good of the country.)
W.Kim, the Learned 12.16.07 at 2:15 am
I don’t know who the president of the the U.K. is, but the prime minister of the U.S. is King George II. Boy, I must be having the same wine the senator had.
A. Y. Mous 12.16.07 at 4:53 am
Yeah! There’s something weird about being George and chief executive at the same time. And it gets worse over time. George the third was just mad, but George the second seems to be fucking insane.
Warren Terra 12.16.07 at 6:21 am
Re #25: He’s the second ‘George Bush’, but in fact Dubya is our George III. Which makes the bookkeeping easier, in a way.
In case you’re wondering, the most common first name for U.S. Presidents is ‘James’, by a wide margin. No Jimmies running this year, that I can recall (Gilmore was one, briefly).
Also, #22 is right. Chris Y (#17) wins.
NSG 12.17.07 at 6:12 am
It was Al D’Amato, wasn’t it? Trachtenberg’s home state senator, never the smartest guy in the room, etc.
Danielle Day 12.17.07 at 9:41 pm
@14, 18 & 23
In kindergarten, a girlfriend told me that all who are not Catholic must eat worms (now? in hell?). Anyway, she went on to become a nun.
American Citizen 12.18.07 at 10:03 pm
I guess the nice thing about being a senator is that he didn’t have to make any fundraising calls during his history lesson.
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