Andrew Johnson and Me
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
History seems to waver back and forth when deciding if Andrew Johnson was good for our country or not. Having survived John Wilkes Booth’s plot to overtake the government when his would-be assassin lost his nerve, Andrew Johnson was sworn in as our nation’s 17th president following the death of Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865. Charged with the monumental task of the post-Civil War Reconstruction, Johnson would feud openly with Congress who wanted harsher treatment of the southern states. It is because of Johnson’s compassion for the South that he was later heralded as a great leader. Read the rest of this entry »
It is amazing what can be accompished in just one week. I like trips that are so busy that they seem to go on forever. Not always relaxing, but definitely more rewarding. It is kind of odd to put it into terms like this, but on the morning of Saturday, March 29, 2008, I had not yet visited Texas. I had never been to Dallas, Fort Worth, Crawford, Waco, College Station, Huntsville, Houston, San Antonio, Fredericksburg, Uvalde, Johnson City, Stonewall, Bonham, Denison, or Parker. And now just one week later I have seen all of these places. Pretty amazing.
I have long wanted to find an affordable and legitimate autograph of President Bill Clinton. Although he is one of my favorite Presidents, he is not a very generous signer through the mail and his autographs usually go for quite a pretty penny…and that’s assuming you trust the source in the first place. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to make a donation of $100 to the Bill Clinton Foundation with the promise that I would be awarded a copy of his new book Giving, which included a personally signed bookplate inside. All money over and above the cost of the book is tax deductible, the autograph is guaranteed to be the real deal, and I got to donate a cause that I find worthy – all in one swoop. 
I didn’t expect to have any more celebrity encounters this late in the year, but when Bob sent me an email and the subject was “Caroline Kennedy book signing get your ass there!” – I knew that I better make my best effort to cross paths with her. Caroline is of course the daughter and only remaining living child of President John F. Kennedy. She lived in the White House from just after her third birthday until just after her sixth – when her father was assassinated in Dallas. She herself went on to become a successful attorney and author, and I might I add, quite a natural beauty.