At Ease . . .
Here you see Barack Obama stepping off the presidential helicopter, with a brisk salute to his Marine guards flanking the stepladder. Elbow out, index finger flattened against the eyebrow, the president's stiff-armed, machine-like salutation should satisfy those journalists, bloggers, and radio personalities who have commented on Obama's adaptation to White House "tradition," or criticized his saluting technique.
The problem, as far as THE SCRAPBOOK is concerned, is that saluting White House military aides is not only not tradition, but arguably improper. A salute is a gesture of recognition between uniformed members of the armed services, a sign of deference or, in the military's hierarchical etiquette, mutual respect. Presidents are, indeed, "commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States," as the Constitution tells us; but presidents are also civilians, and soldiers and civilians don't exchange salutes. A president is free to acknowledge his military guardians in any way he sees fit--smile, nod, word of thanks, wave--but saluting is probably the one thing he shouldn't do.
All right, all right, this is one of those arcane rules that drives reasonable people to subversion. But it's worth pointing out that, far from being a presidential tradition, the practice of saluting Marine guards at the White House dates all the way back to--Ronald Reagan, whose "salute" was closer to a Midwestern hail than anything known in the military. You can search through the archives for photographs or newsreels of presidents before 1981 greeting men (and women) in uniform, and the closest thing you'll find to a salute is a hearty handshake or friendly nod. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a West Point graduate and five-star general, never saluted anybody as president because he knew that, as a matter of civic symbolism, soldiers saluted him, not the other way around.
So if Barack Obama chooses some alternative gesture--or no gesture at all--it's fine with THE SCRAPBOOK. There are more important things to worry about in the Obama presidency.
Hard Times
Evidence of hard times keeps rolling in. And THE SCRAPBOOK has appointed itself chronicler of the worst recession--we prefer to call it a depression--since the Carter administration.
Here's one shocking example: In Paris last week, artifacts from the estate of fashion designer Yves St. Laurent went on the block at Christie's, and after several rounds of half-hearted bidding, the final total was a disappointing $484.6 million. We repeat: $484.6 million! A lousy half-billion dollars for an estate sale is just one measure of how sick the global economy has become.
Take, for instance, this "dragon" chair, by designer Eileen Gray, which was part of the lot. Since Yves St. Laurent may actually have sat in it--perhaps even thrown his coat over the arms, or leaned his shoulders against the pillow while watching TV--the chair, in THE SCRAPBOOK's estimation, should have gone for somewhere between three-quarters of a billion dollars and a cool trillion. But when the auction was over the St. Laurent estate had to settle for a paltry $28.3 million, paid by New York nightclub owner/decorative arts collector Steven Greenberg.
Sure, it was the highest price ever paid at auction for a 20th-century piece of furniture, but are you still in denial about the economic tailspin? When a chair once sat in by Yves St. Laurent can be scooped up for anything less than $250 million--indeed, for an insulting $28.3 million!--you have to wonder about the state of our culture's values. At the very least, we expect Mr. Greenberg to let THE SCRAPBOOK sit in the chair when we visit his rooftop lounge on Fifth Avenue.
The 'New York Times' Gets Fooled Again
On January 27, the New York Times ran a profile of a Manhattan support group for bankers' girlfriends. The group, called "Dating a Banker Anonymous" (DABA), was helping beautiful young socialites cope with the financial crisis and its attendant horrors. For instance, the Times reported that on the group's blog, a woman who was dating a married man complained that the two of them weren't traveling together anymore. He responded that money had become so tight that his wife was keeping tabs on his spending.
The entire premise seemed too good to be true. Two days after the story ran, Linda Holmes, a blogger for NPR, cast doubt on the story by examining the DABA website. Everything about the production reeked of premeditated self-promotion, including a 3,300 word terms-of-usage legal disclaimer. Newsweek began poking around and, well, it didn't take much poking: The DABA girls themselves gleefully confessed that the entire project--the support group, the stories, the "other women" on the blog--was all just a goof. Or, as one of the two perpetrators of the satire happily told Newsweek, it's "rooted in emotional truth." The good news is, the girls may have succeeded in using the Times to secure themselves a book deal.
For its part, the Times seems relatively blasé about having been hijacked by a couple of girls on the make and used for their publicity stunt. Instead of retracting the story, the paper simply added an "Editor's Note" saying that had their reporter known the real nature of the DABA project, "the article would have described it accordingly."
Obama Suck-up Watch
"By journalistic convention, this is about the time--a month or so into the new administration--that what is known as the narrative about Obama should take a negative turn. The glow of the election and the inauguration has faded; the Dow keeps falling and unemployment keeps rising. There have even been the usual cabinet appointment stumbles. . . . Given the enormity of the moment and the temperament of the president, however, our argument this week is that the predictable rush toward criticism or acclaim has grown stale and less relevant than it has been in administrations past" (Jon Meacham, Newsweek, March 2).
Correction
In an item on this page three weeks ago, recounting how retired general Anthony Zinni had been jerked around by the Obama administration--first promised the post of U.S. ambassador, and then having the offer revoked--THE SCRAPBOOK mistakenly described him as a retired Army general. Zinni in fact retired after a storied career in the U.S. Marine Corps.