I do not want to dwell on it, but I would be remiss if I did not bring to your attention the latest Presidential gift idea. (See my earlier posting "Selecting the Right Gift Can Be a Real Pain", March 9, 2009).
What does one give to the Queen, who is one of the the world's richest women? (How wealthy is she? Hard question to answer. Apparently she is not in top 10. See http://money.uk.msn.com/guides/women-and-money/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4758684.) Well, how about an iPod? That is apparently what President Obama gave the Queen of England, although it was not just an empty iPod but one already loaded with a video of the Queen's visit to the USA in 2007. As with the President's gift of 25 DVD's to Gordon Brown, this gift has not gone over that well with some naysayers. See the Telegraph.co.uk story at http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/04/01/barack_obamas_gift_for_the_queen_an_ipod_your_majesty. The story does also note however that there was another gift, "a rare songbook signed by Richard Rogers". That would, I think, be something special.
Okay, no big deal. We are in an economic crisis and complaining about trivialities like the quality of the President's gifts to world leaders is probably silly. But I just had to mention it, and I thank one of my faithful readers for alerting me to this breaking news story.
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Prof Klar,
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right. It's a "triviality". A record deficit budget in the making and you're worried about what he gave the Queen?
You acknowledge that it is "no big deal". But then you say "you had to mention it". What are we to take from this admission? Is it some involuntary reflex that impels you to reproduce such "trivialities"?
Also, it was apparently filled with his recordings of Obama's own speeches.
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/04/what-does-one-g.html
I checked the link you gave, anonymous. "Filled" is a bit of an overstatement. The Ipod contained two of Obama's speeches - which is at least one speech too many, to my mind. Gives a whole new meaning to "full of himself" - doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteActually this was an imaginative and modest gift for a president who aims to make the most of every moment - for an argument it was "the perfect gift" see http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/archives/2009/04/an_ipod_for_the.html. Certainly it was clearly balanced by the book though I haven't seen how much that cost or if it was part of the presidential collection so basically a regift - if the latter all the better as a tiny symbol of frugality bobbing on the current tsumani of goverment credit. I was curious if it was also the introduction of a seminal 'young' technology by a younger president to one of the world's elder icons (for want of a better word) but the queen actually got an ipod in 2005 - which in tech terms makes it vintage already, so a timely gift as well. From small acorns hoepfully grow big trees.
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