Ho-hum! So what else is new?

Among the American Founding Fathers, John Hancock was said to be a smuggler in Boston; Henry Laurens, a big-time slave trader; George Washington and Ben Franklin were supposedly involved in land grabs of dubious legality. Ben was known to have been equally successful at wooing French women as well as French financiers of the American Revolution. Thomas Jefferson had a love slave − literally: Sally Hemings, a woman of mixed parentage whom he owned. James Buchanan, who was the President immediately prior to Lincoln, was allegedly in a three- decade relationship with a southern Senator and slave owner. His illustrious successor too was believed to have similar proclivities. Coming closer to the present, Dwight Eisenhower had his “pretty Irish driver”, an Englishwoman named Kay Summersby Morgan. He wanted to marry her after divorcing Mamie, according to President Harry Truman. Ike even went so far as to request the Pentagon to relieve him of his command so that he could follow his heart. He was threatened with dire consequences if he indulged his romantic inclination. It fizzled out and, despite Ike’s solemn promise to take her to Washington as his secretary; Kay got the sack after he left Europe. In short, she lost both her man and her job, poor dear. Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern in the notorious Blue Dress, was only one of Bill Clinton’s many peccadilloes, in and out of the Presidency. That JFK took frequent and brief breaks from his high-pressure job with his numerous flings, including the one with Marilyn Monroe, is an open secret too widely known and accepted as an integral part of US Presidential lore and unlikely to raise any eyebrows anymore. So why should we be scandalized by the recent revelations by Mimi Alford, now a 69-year-old grandmother and retired New York City church administrator, about her 18-month-long affair with Kennedy in 1962-63 during her White House internship at age 19? Why indeed? http://nyp.st/yKC9bn The reader reactions to an article http://bit.ly/zV3vul about a soon-to-be-published tell-all memoir of the secret life of Hollywood stars of the swinging 40s and 50s – long before AIDS and gay liberation, Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars (Grove Press) by the self-proclaimed “facilitator” Scotty Bowers is along the same lines. No big deal how people chose to live in private. Anyway, who the devil cares about a bunch of ancient has-beens? P.S.: The cover page image at Amazon.com website shows a 3-word excerpt from Gore Vidal’s comment that lends a semblance of credibility to the 88-year-0ld Bowers’ book, though. The full comment reads: “I have known Scotty Bowers for the better part of a century. I’m so pleased that he has finally decided to tell his story to the world. His startling memoir includes great figures like Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Scotty doesn’t lie — the stars sometimes do — and he knows everybody.” http://bit.ly/ yZRZEo, http://bit.ly/xO704s

Not another Royal Canadian Air Farce surely?

First, the post-Presidential sequel: Clinton plumbed his Random Access Memory and unleashed on the unsuspecting world his weighty 957-page autobiography, My Life, a couple of years back. According to the 21 June 2004 story in Borowitzreport.com, one copy of the tome “fell off a bookstore shelf in Portland, Oregon today, killing three people and seriously wounding five others.” What really happened? Answer from the report: “From what we can tell, it just kind of tipped off a high shelf," said police detective Mark Drayton. "How on earth anyone ever got it up there is still a mystery to me." Moral of the story: "This book is more than just deadly boring – it is deadly," said Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski. Really? More deadly boring than the present incumbent of the White House who reportedly “shot himself in the foot the other day while showing off a pistol that once belonged to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein”? http://www.borowitzreport.com/. P.S.: Another ‘reliable’ Borowitzreport.com dispatch (24 June) reveals a diabolical White House plan “to outsource prison abuse to India”. They’re "actively exploring the possibility of establishing a telephone calling center in Bangalor (sic!) that would harass Iraqi detainees at all hours of the night with highly annoying telemarketing inquiries.” Shudder!

Now, the latest pre-Presidential prequel: You are aware of the political ambitions of the present New York senator and former First Lady surely. She wants to run for the White House. It looks like it may turn out to be a case of Hillary proposing and God - er, Bill - disposing, though. Scuttlebutt says, Bill has a new girl friend. She's Canadian. She's wealthy in her own right. She's powerful. She's divorced. She's blond. She's photogenic. She's astoundingly well-connected. She's a floor crosser from Conservative to Liberal. And, she's his junior by two decades. http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=2&subID=578&WT.srch=1. The tabloid's are going to town tagging Belinda Stronach "blonde bombshell" and "Bubba's blonde" ("Bubba" as in "Bill"). One more thing. Unlike Hillary, Belinda is a quitter. She dropped out of the run-up to the Liberal Party leadership after sizing up the competition.

Finally, a personal and unrelated Indian post-script: By the way, if my memory doesn't fail me, there used to be in my distant youth an ad agency called LA Stronachs. Their office used to be at Ballard Estate, the port precincts of Mumbai. It later became, I was told, Norvicson Advertising. Its office now is within walking distance of Strand Book Stall as well as of its original location. The agency is presently headed by an energetic young adman who is a friend of my friend, Deep Bisen.