Watergate Left Washington A City Ravaged By

It Takes Great Self-confidence To Write A Newspaper Column. Some Might Say It Takes Arrogance. Be That As It May, My Willingness To Pronounce On A Great Many Matters Of Which I Have Little Or No Knowledge Is One Of My Prime Qualifications For This Trade.

Though Americans Talk A Good Deal About The Virtue Of Being Serious, They Generally Prefer People Who Are Solemn Over People Who Are Serious. In Politics, The Rare Candidate Who Is Serious, Like Adlai Stevenson, Is Easily Overwhelmed By One Who Is Solemn, Like General Eisenhower. This Is Probably Because It Is Hard For Most People To Recognize Seriousness, Which Is Rare, Especially In Politics, But Comfortable To Endorse Solemnity, Which Is As Commonplace As Jogging.

Etiquette Is The Grease That Makes It Possible For All Of Us To Rub Together Without Unnecessary Overheating.

Letter Writing Was Clearly Important To Reagan. Even As President He Kept Dashing Off Letters To Friends, Pen Pals, Media People, Statesmen, Critics, And The Kind Of People Who Write To Presidents Never Expecting A Reply.

Like All Young Reporters - Brilliant Or Hopelessly Incompetent - I Dreamed Of The Glamorous Life Of The Foreign Correspondent: Prowling Vienna In A Burberry Trench Coat, Speaking A Dozen Languages To Dangerous Women, Narrowly Escaping Sardinian Bandits - The Usual Stuff That Newspaper Dreams Are Made Of.