Fired up and anecdotal

On C-Span, saw part of Pres. Obama's Labor Day speech to some workers: the president told the "Fired up! Ready to go!" story.

I had heard the story -- listened to the speech on You Tube, during last year's campaign. It was a good story -- worth hearing again. The lady at the back of the room, at a small town gathering, who kept calling out "Fired up! Ready to go!" And it had become sort of a local tradition.

(The president described the lady as wearing a "church hat"; cute. Somehow we all know just exactly what a 'church hat' is...)

Started thinking of other quotes -- off the top of my head, got:

"Fired up! Ready to go!" (Pres. Obama and church hat lady)

"There you go again." (Ronald Reagan)

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself." (Franklin Roosevelt)

"Follow the money." ("Deep Throat" -- Watergate source)

"Tomorrow is another day." (Scarlett O'Hara)

I should be able to think of other quotes; but today, recovering from a cold / flu thing, that's all I got. ...

In the book entitled The Diana Chronicles author and journalist / editor Tina Brown tells story of Princess Diana -- in the mix, as an American, I found I learned a lot from the book about English aristocracy system -- how they name someone a duke or an earl (and do not say "Duke, duke, duke -- duke of earl" with musical notes floating around it -- we're not going there).

It seems obscure and hard to grasp for a natural egalitarian and meritocrat, as most of us Americans were raised and educated to be (I think) -- kind of like some distant and quaint Eskimo series of customs & rituals.

My ancestors came from that part of the world (U.K. countries) so I'm not being mildly cynical about someone else's deal -- it's my ancestors' deal. It still seems weird to me.

As does the apparent obsession for gossip, in England.

In Chapter 5, "The Rise of The Beast", Tina Brown writes:

The magic formula of the [Daily] Mail was a combination of curtain-twitching class envy and strident rightist politics, with the added spice of the most waspish gossip columnist in London, Nigel Dempster, whose scoops from the highest circles of the Establishment were read at every upper-class breakfast table like a ransom note. Dempster had a thirty-year reign of terror until he was felled by ill health. He was a miniaturist in tabloid takedowns. His demonic social energy seemed to take him everywhere at once; in a car he always drove at a hundred miles an hour with the horn blaring....He was dapper, fiendishly well-connected, dazzlingly anecdotal, and blessed with total recall.

Phew!

This is why I like Tina Brown's writing style in that book.

"combination of curtain-twitching class envy and strident rightist politics" -- a big, satisfying bite of medium-well filet mignon

"...scoops from the highest circles of the Establishment were read at every upper-class breakfast table like a ransom note" -- a sip of rum and coke

"demonic social energy" -- a chocolate-covered cherry

"fiendishly well-connected" -- tuna sandwich on good bread

"dazzlingly anecdotal" -- to be anecdotal -- full of stories and able to tell them well -- to be anecdotal might be plenty, but to be dazzlingly so ... well ... that's just a bursting shower of strawberry sundae, I'd think ...

Whether or not you needed any more information about Princess Diana, the book is an experience, of style and English-ness. Fun.