The Nitty Gritty

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The Queen’s Riddle

Prominent author Edward Everett Hale, who wrote A Man Without a Country, spent the last years of his life as chaplain of the U.S. Senate. During his years in the Senate, Mr. Hale was often asked questions about his duties. He was once asked, “Do you pray for the Senators, Mr. Hale?” To which he replied, “No, I look at the Senators and pray for the country.”

In a somewhat humorous manner, Mr. Hale had given a response that seems to be the appropriate answer for today, yesterday and tomorrow. I am convinced that most of our elected officials in Washington are more concerned about their own situation than they are about our well-being. If you do not believe me just look at the number of Senators who started off this election cycle running for the nomination of their political party for President. When we still had three left in the race — for the last year, or longer, they could not have properly done their job as elected Senators. Instead, they were traveling all over the country while their taxpayer paid staff had been taking care of business for them.

Since we’re talking about Senators and Presidents, I suppose it would be the proper time to share something I received from my cousin, Don Harbin. According to Don’s e-mail, when President Bill Clinton went to Great Britain to meet with Queen Elizabeth, he asked her, “How does one manage to run a country so smoothly?” She replied, “That’s easy, you surround yourself with intelligent ministers and advisors.” “But”, Clinton asked, “how can you tell whether they’re intelligent or continued from page

not?” “You ask them a riddle,” she replied, and she then pressed a button and said, “Please send Tony Blair in.” When Blair arrived, the Queen said, “I have a riddle for you to answer — your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was the child?” Blair answered, “That’s easy — the child was me!” “Very good,” said the Queen, “you may go now.” When Clinton returned, after his visit with the Queen, he thought about Joe Biden’s possible future presidential bid, and the next time he saw Joe, he said, “I have a riddle for you and the answer is very important. Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was that child?” Biden responded, “Can I deliberate on this for awhile?” “Yes,” Bill replied, “I will give you four hours.”

Now, folks. we’d all be idiots if we put Joe Biden in the White House…

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