Nieuwsbrieven

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Zodra ik op internet mijzelf bekend maak bij bijvoorbeeld Delta Airlines, KLM, filmshops, boekensites of een hotelketen krijg ik ongevraagd nieuwsbrieven.

Ik denk dat ik inmiddels vijftig gebruikersnamen en wachtwoorden heb opgeslagen op een USB'tje. Een noodzakelijk kwaad.

Hetzelfde geldt voor pasjes, spaarkaarten en pincodes.

Niet dat ik seniel ben, maar zo nu en dan word ik er daas van.

Terug naar de hinderlijke nieuwsbrieven.

Als voorbeeld geef ik de - door mij al eerder verfoeide - KLM.
De Flying Blue-site verwelkomt me hartelijk. Daarna ga ik naar mijn eigen profiel en geef daarin aan dat ik GEEN nieuwsbrief wens te ontvangen.
Vervolgens log ik uit en verlaat de KLM website.

Daarna zoek ik de site weer op en log in met de gegevens van manlief. Want ook hij wordt belaagd door ongewenste blauwe post (komt op mijn adres aan).
Ik herhaal de procedure.

Een maand later.
Ja hoor, daar is ie weer.......................de nieuwsbrief.

Tot mijn boze verbazing zie ik dat het 'wel nieuwsbrieven ontvangen' staat aangevinkt. Dus probeer ik het weer te veranderen.
Natuurlijk krijg ik een foutmelding. En nog een, en nog een.

De Zwaan, ik kan z'n nek wel omdraaien.

Crisis

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Het nieuws dat ons zonnige weekend in het Ahrgebied enigszins overschaduwde was de mysterieuze verdwijning van Huibert Boumeester.

Dat zijn dode lichaam gevonden is mag aan de ene kant een geruststelling zijn, aan de andere kant roept het vragen op. Vragen die wellicht nooit beantwoord kunnen/zullen worden.

Elsevier wist meteen te melden dat het om zelfmoord ging. Daar lijkt het inderdaad op, maar dat Boumeester zichzelf naar de eeuwige jachtvelden heeft geschoten is vooralsnog niet door de politie bevestigd.

Ik ben goed in thrillerscenario's, doch laat me daar niet toe verleiden.

Huibert Boumeester heb ik één keer meegemaakt bij een aandeelhoudersvergadering van AAB. Die stond geheel in het teken van de overname door Fortis. Hij kwam als een serieuze, rustige man over.

Dat de economische crisis - waar ik het ABN*Amro/Fortis-echec ook onder schik - tot dodelijke slachtoffers zou leiden leek en lijkt mij onvermijdelijk.

De speculaties lopen uiteen. Hij zou depressief zijn, tegen een burn out aan zitten.
Nee, hij was helemaal niet somber zeggen naasten.
Hij zou tevergeefs status hebben nagestreefd.

Naar wat er in Boumeesters hoofd is omgegaan kan ik alleen maar gissen.

Miljardendief Bernard Madoff, die waarschijnlijk cliënten tot wanhoopsdaden heeft gedreven, zal sowieso in gevangenschap sterven. Die zekerheid heeft hij.
Het jaar 2159, dat is zo'n drie generaties verder.

Is er dan nog wel leven op aarde?

Service

Jawel, wederom een complimenteus blogje over Nespresso.

Het is heerlijk om tussen de klachten eens een positief geluid te kunnen laten horen. Eerlijk is eerlijk, ik maak er ook melding van.

Opvallend is wel dat het telkens hetzelfde merk is dat in de prijzen valt.

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De casus:

Ik was meerdere keren bij mijn Nespresso-provider, de Bijenkorf, geweest voor een ontkalker. Drie keer kreeg ik neen.

Uitverkocht.

Niet binnengekomen.

De laatste vijf minuten geleden verkocht.

We zitten er op te wachten.

Enzovoorts, .....................

Dus via de website van Nespresso een ontkalker besteld. Ging prima.

Het is een duidelijke site. Kind kan de was doen.

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De kosten waren tien euro plus vier euro verzendkosten.

Ik plaatste een opmerking dat bestellen via internet noodzaak was, omdat ik bij de Bijenkorf telkens bot ving.

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Twee dagen later werd het pakketje keurig bezorgd.

Tot mijn grote genoegen was mijn opmerking over de verzendkosten ter harte genomen en vervielen de vier euro verzendkosten.

Dat noem ik service.

Tot mijn schrik ontdekte ik dat ik - domme ik - een ontkalker voor een ander type apparaat had besteld. Dus belde ik de klantenservice.

'Geen probleem mevrouw ten Bruggencate, u kunt deze ontkalker ook gebruiken - zij het op een andere manier'.

'Oh hemeltje. Hoe dan?'

'Ik zal de procedure stap voor stap met u doorlopen'.

Dit was een klantenservice met verstand van zaken! Met kennis van het product! En met een flinke portie geduld en vriendelijkheid!

Ik zette de microfoon van de telefoon aan en legde deze op het aanrecht. Vervolgens deed ik precies wat de aardige klantenservice-mevrouw mij opdroeg. De hele procedure, tot en met het twee keer naspoelen.

'Kan ik verder nog iets voor u doen, mevrouw ten Bruggencate?'

Ik kon zo snel niets verzinnen.

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Of ja, misschien toch.........................

de was?

Bietenzeer

Wij vieren onze trouwdag altijd uitgebreid.

We begrijpen dat drieëndertig jaar bij elkaar blijven iets bijzonders is. Onze omgeving maakt ons daarop attent.

Zelf vinden we het heel gewoon.

Ons huwelijksbootje heeft heus wel eens averij opgelopen. Niet zo'n beetje ook.

Maar dan legden we hem op het droge en gingen in en aan de slag. Hij is nog steeds zeewaardig.

We zijn (deze keer zonder Scooby) terug in het Ahrtal - zo'n 3,5 uur rijden van Rotterdam.

Ditmaal hebben we het goed getroffen met het hotel Jägerstübchen in Laach/Mayschoss (zie foto's), waar we in mei tijdens een toeristische route langsreden. Toen wist ik al welke kamer ik moest boeken. DE FOTO'S met ondertiteling.

Gisteravond hebben we heerlijk gedineerd in Walporzheim. Er lag een dikke wijngids op tafel die zo aanlokkelijk was, dat wij vandaag terug zijn gegaan om te proeven en te kopen.

Vanavond genieten we van een Schnitzel mit Pfifferlingen, Pommes Frites und Salat. Net zo heerlijk als gisteren, maar dan anders.

Vanmorgen was het om tien uur nog dauwtrappen. Letterlijk wel te verstaan. We maakten een frisse wandeling langs de Ahr.

Het is opvallend, nee - angstaanjagend stil. Op een paar bussen na zijn er nauwelijks toeristen. Hoogst dubieus dat hotels in de eerste week van juli zelf met vakantie gaan, nietwaar?

Onze 12053ste huwelijksnacht was dankzij een indringend piepje in het bed - via de muren - waarschijnlijk in het hele hotel hoorbaar. Dat vrijt niet echt ontspannen kan ik u (in vertrouwen) mededelen.

Maar wij zijn duizend en één nacht in ieder geval ruimschoots voorbij gestreefd.

La Vilette is v.v.t

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Opnieuw sluit een toprestaurant

ROTTERDAM - Rijnmond is opnieuw een topzaak kwijt. Na Yokoo en Bernisse Molen heeft La Vilette de handdoek in de ring moeten gooien.

De regionale gastronomie is geschokt na de gedwongen sluiting van het vooraanstaande etablissement in hartje Rotterdam. ,,Van dit bericht krijg ik acuut buikpijn,'' zegt patron cuisinier Erik van Loo van tweesterrenrestaurant Parkheuvel.

Per mail liet Ingrid Hörster (43), eigenares van La Vilette, gisteren weten dat persoonlijke omstandigheden en de kredietcrisis haar de das hebben omgedaan. Ze is niet bereikbaar voor een nadere toelichting.
,,Ze zit er volledig doorheen,'' weet Gert Blom, mede-eigenaar van restaurant Amarone (1 ster), oud-werknemer van La Vilette en goede vriend van Ingrid Hörster.

In het circuit gaat het gerucht dat de wegen van Gert Blom en Harrie Baas (eveneens eigenaar van Amarone) scheiden en dat eerstgenoemde het opgedoekte La Vilette overneemt. ,,Harrie en ik staan aan de vooravond van een verbouwing. Je investeert niet in een zaak als je van plan bent op te stappen.''

In mei 1995 namen Ingrid Hörster en haar partner Fred Mustert La Vilette over van Carl Schuurs en Yvonne Savert, die in Frankrijk een andere draai aan hun leven wilden geven. Na acht jaar beloonden de veeleisende inspecteurs van Michelin de gedrevenheid van Mustert en Hörster met een ster.

Na de breuk met Fred Mustert, begin 2007, ging Ingrid Hörster als enig aandeelhouder door met La Vilette. De scheiding maakte haar portemonnee een heel stuk dunner.
,,Ik heb hem voor de hoofdprijs uitgekocht,'' liet ze zich ooit ontvallen.

Nicolas Belot, sous-chef onder Mustert, nam de leiding in de keuken van La Vilette over.
In de zomer van 2008 vertrok hij geheel onverwacht naar Rijswijk. In Marc Muzerie, algemeen beschouwd als een grote belofte, vond Ingrid Hörster de ideale opvolger.

Drie chefwissels in korte tijd, daarmee kon Michelin niet uit de voeten; in november 2008 raakte La Vilette zijn ster kwijt. Zeven maanden later heeft het restaurant de stekker eruit moeten trekken. bron

Het nieuws was al eerder per e-mail tot mij gekomen, maar dit artikel in het AD - voorzien van smeuïge details (die feitelijk nog veel smeuïger zijn) zegt het allemaal.
Lees onze ervaring van twee jaar geleden.

Het is jammer, maar onvermijdelijk.

De fuik 2

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84 uur durende alcoholcontrole

ROTTERDAM - In het Rotterdamse centrum is de politie donderdagavond een 84-uur-durende alcoholcontrole gestart.

De ongekend lange actie is geen poging om in het Guiness Book of Records te komen, maar is vooral bedoeld als signaal aan alle automobilisten: Het is nog altijd niet in orde om aangeschoten of dronken achter het stuur te zitten.

Hoewel bij standaardcontroles steeds minder dronken rijders worden gesnapt, ziet de politie nog altijd ‘figuren die drinken en rijden’.

Op verschillende plekken lopen automobilisten de komende dagen de kans om de fuik in te rijden en te moeten blazen. Ook als er nergens een grootscheepse controle is, dan is er nog een wagen van de noodhulp vrijgemaakt om doorlopend te controleren of mensen met een glaasje te veel op rondrijden. Diverse eenheden van zowel de wijkpolitie als de noodhulp doen mee aan de grote actie, die toevallig valt op dagen dat vele mensen op het terras onder het genot van een alcoholische versnapering van de zon genieten. Bron

1976 - 2009

The show is over

De fuik

Waarom begon ik mijn vorige blogje over het openbaar vervoer?

Omdat er vanavond in het centrum van Rotterdam - namelijk op de Meent - een drankcontrole was. En niet zo'n kleintje ook. Wat een overmacht aan blauw op straat!

De politie had een strategisch punt uitgezocht. Je kon als automobilist geen kant meer op.

Auto's die er tussenuit probeerden te knijpen werden door motoragenten ingehaald en terug geëscorteerd. Busjes, Golfjes en motoren reden af en aan.

Jongelui met blikjes bier werden op straat aangehouden.

Het was een gigantische schoonveegactie.

We hebben als ramptoeristen vanaf een bankje het schouwspel gevolgd. Het was vroeg op de avond en in één uur werd er welgeteld maar één automobilist betrapt.

Brave burgers, slechte blaaspijpjes of barmhartige politieagenten?

Een man, die de fuik vanaf het terras had opgemerkt, kwam te voet preventief blazen.

Drie heren (lichtelijk aangeschoten) moesten de stad uit, maar liepen zenuwachtig over het plein te ijsberen. Ze zochten tevergeefs een sluiproute.

Ik kon me zo voorstellen dat ze na hun werk lekker geborreld hadden of dat de lunch iets was uitgelopen.

'We kunnen geen kant op,' hoorde ik één zeggen. 'Wat moeten we nou?'

Ze verdwenen mopperend uit ons zicht.

Na een uur liepen wij richting huis. We passeerden het terras van Dudok.

Daar zat het drietal. Aan de koffie met appelgebak. Midden op de tafel stond een grote fles water.

Een dure actie, gezien de karige vangst.

Maar bij iedereen zit de schrik er weer even goed in.

Bahhhhh

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Ideaal van middenin de stad wonen is dat je nooit de auto pakt wanneer je 'around town' blijft. Tram en metro zijn om de hoek.

Wij hadden een BBQ van kantoor.
Het bier smaakte goed, maar de grote vette worsten lagen er niet appetijtelijk bij. Iedereen liep te jongleren met plastic bordjes en bekertjes. Er stonden welgeteld twee tafels voor zo'n zestig mensen.
Verder was het erg gezellig.

Terug in the city besloten we maar even een snelle, lekkere en betaalbare hap te gaan eten bij de Satébar, onze favoriet. We zijn vaste klanten.
Ze hebben er een nieuwe locatie bij, namelijk op de Karel Doormanstraat. Geweldig, met terras.

Om een lang verhaal...............................

Ik had mijn bord met heerlijk bami -en saté bijna leeg toen ik op een pikzwarte haar stuitte.
Het bord bijna leeg, mijn maag bijna vol. U voelt hem al.......................

De anders zo aardige ober had direct een excuus klaar waarmee hij echtgenoot en ook mij boos maakte.
'Het is een risico wat je als gast loopt als je buiten wilt eten. Dan kan er zomaar een haar in je eten terecht komen.'

'En kruipt die haar dan naar de bodem om zich daar lekker tussen de mie te nestelen? Zo van sliert zoekt sliert,' vroeg ik.

De ober was standvastig. 'Ja, dat is mogelijk.'

P. werd driftig en eiste excuses.
Het obertje bleef pruttelen.

Ik duwde mijn bord in zijn handen en vroeg om de rekening.
Die kwam. Mijn maaltijd was niet berekend.

Ik vond het niet eens een genoegdoening. Ik was boos, maar vooral teleurgesteld.

Teleurgesteld in ons zaakje. Teleurgesteld in ons obertje.
En ons obertje was waarschijnlijk teleurgesteld in ons.

Vanwege de fooi die hij misliep.

Vraagtekens

(CNN) -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, just back from a secret trip to Argentina unknown to his staff or his wife, admitted Wednesday he has carried on an extramarital affair with a woman in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford chokes up on Wednesday as he admits to having an affair.

"I've been unfaithful to my wife," Sanford told a news conference in Columbia, South Carolina. "I developed a relationship with what started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina."
His voice choking at times, Sanford apologized to his wife and four sons, his staff and supporters, and said he would resign immediately as head of the Republican Governors Association.
The affair began in the last year and was discovered five months ago, Sanford said without elaborating. He added that he and his wife were trying to work through it.

Watch Sanford admit to the affair »
In a statement issued later Wednesday, Sanford's wife, Jenny, said she asked him to move out two weeks earlier but was still open to a reconciliation for the benefit of their children. lees verder

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Niet alleen hang ik kotsend boven de wc wanneer ik zijn publiekelijke biecht zie, ook zet ik vraagtekens bij de consequenties die hij trekt. Ik bedoel als gouverneur.

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De man heeft een buitenechtelijke verhouding gehad.

Maakt dat hem een onbetrouwbare gouverneur of presidentskandidaat?

Oké, als het privéreisjes naar Argentinië waren die hij bij de staat heeft gedeclareerd................

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Mijn god, al die fijne (= lui die de moraal preken) hoge Pieten in de VS piesen naast de pot. Het is het land der hypocrieten.

Op zondag prijzen ze de Heere en op maandag gaan ze uit de kleren.

Politici, priesters, ambtenaren, bestuurders - ze hebben allemaal een onbedwingbare 'ruime' seksuele behoefte.

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Bill Clinton bleef godzijdank zitten als president.

Godzijdank omdat hij gewoon een goede president was. Nadat Clinton (ondanks hardnekkig liegen) vrijuit ging kon hij toch weer op het politieke vertrouwen rekenen.

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Zie welke Born Again Christian er na hem kwam en waar dat toe geleid heeft.

Campingeten

P. kwam me om zes uur ophalen uit Brouw. Het einde van een heerlijk weekje zonnig en (nog) rustig Zeeland.

Het huisje ziet er weer picobello uit voor de verhuur.

Daarom wilde ik er ook niet meer koken.

Bij het winkeltje op het nabijgelegen Landalpark kocht ik een blikje Smac en een pak Hollandse groenteschotel van Iglo.

Het knapperige stokbroodje kon ik niet laten liggen.

Zo toverde ik in tien minuten een heerlijke eenpansmaaltijd op tafel. Het flesje rode wijn erbij deed wonderen.

Maar het gaat mij specifiek om Smac.

Het brengt mij terug naar mijn jeugd, naar de kampeervakanties met mijn familie. Kamperen in tenten.

Mijn vader had zelf een bagagewagen ontworpen en gebouwd. Achterin, boven het nummerbord, zat een kastje waarin het butagasje stond. Mijn moeder kon onderweg koffie zetten.

In de bagagekar ging veel proviand, waaronder een aantal blikjes Smac; zo makkelijk te openen met dat - op de deksel geplakte - sleuteltje. Het was nog een nauwkeurig werkje om het strookje er recht af te draaien en om je vingers heel te houden.

We aten Smac gebakken, door de macaroni (in Italië!), door papa's fameuze prut of dungesneden op brood met een lik mosterd.

Zo nu en dan, in noodgevallen, pak ik het weer uit een blikkenschap.

Altijd gaan mijn gedachten terug naar mijn jeugdjaren.

Smac is tijdloos.

Hoog-en laagvliegers

Brouwersdam, 21 juni

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Foto's by the Sea

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Geen bluf.

All the presidents wives 41

HILLARY DIANE RODHAM CLINTON

Birth:

Place: Chicago, Illinois Date: 1947, October 26

Father:

Hugh Ellsworth Rodham, born 1911, April 2, Scranton, Pennsylvania, graduate of Pennsylvania State University, small textile supply owner; died, 1993, April 7 in Little Rock, Arkansas

Mother:

Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham, born 1919, Chicago, Illinois; married to Hugh Rodham, 1942

Ancestry:

Welsh, French, Scottish, Native American, English; Hillary Clinton's paternal grandfather Hugh Rodham was born in 1879 in Northumberland, Wales and immigrated to Pennsylvania to work at the Scranton Lace Company. Her maternal great-grandparents, the Howells, were immigrants from England and settled in California. Her maternal grandmother, Della Murray migrated from Canada to Illinois and married secondly to Max Rosenberg who was born in Russia in 1901.

Birth Order:

Eldest of three; two brothers,

Hugh E. Rodham, Jr. (born 1950)

Anthony Rodham (born 1954)

Physical Appearance:

5' 6", blonde hair, blue eyes

Religious Affiliation:

Methodist

Education:

Eugene Field Elementary School, Park Ridge, Illinois, 1953-1957;

Ralph Waldo Emerson Middle School, Park Ridge, Illinois, 1957-1961;

Maine Township High School, East and South, Park Ridge, 1961-1965, National Honor Society member;

Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 1965-1969, Senior Class president, addressed graduating class;

Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut, 1969-1973, member of the board of editors, Yale Review of Law and Social Action, graduated with honors;

Yale Child Study Center, 1973-1974, one post-graduate year of study on children and medicine

Occupation before Marriage:

As a young woman, Hillary Rodham worked as a babysitter both after school and during her vacation breaks, sometimes watching the children of migrant Mexicans brought to the Chicago area for itinerant work. She applied to NASA and was stunned when she was told that girls were not accepted for the astronaut program. Although she was active in young Republican groups and campaigned for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964, she was inspired to work in some form of public service after hearing a speech in Chicago by Reverend Martin Luther King. She worked at various jobs during her summers as a college student, once in a canning factory in Alaska, in 1969. In 1970, she secured a grant and first went to work for the Children's Defense Fund. The following summer, she first came to Washington, D.C. working on Senator Walter Mondale's (Minnesota Democrat) subcommittee on migrant workers, researching migrant problems in housing, sanitation, health and education. In the summer of 1972, she worked in the western states for the Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern's campaign. During her second year in law school, Hillary Clinton volunteered at Yale's Child Study Center, learning about new research on early childhood brain development, as well as New Haven Hospital, where she took on cases of child abuse and the city Legal Services, providing free legal service to the poor. Upon graduation from law school, she served as staff attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the spring of 1974, she returned to Washington as a member of the presidential impeachment inquiry staff advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives during the Watergate Scandal. After the Nixon resignation in August of 1974, she became a faculty member of the University of Arkansas Law School, located in Fayetteville, where her Yale Law School classmate and boyfriend Bill Clinton was teaching as well.

Marriage:

27 years old, married 1975, October 11, Fayetteville, Arkansas to William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton, born 1946, August 19, Hope, Arkansas, professor of law, at their home; before he proposed marriage to Hillary Rodham, Bill Clinton secretly purchased a small house in Fayetteville that she had noticed and remarked that she had liked. When he proposed marriage to her and she accepted, he revealed that they owned the house. They married and lived here, briefly, before relocating to the state capital of Little Rock, Arkansas, from which he conducted his first campaign, for U.S. Congress.

Children:

One daughter; Chelsea Victoria Clinton, (born 1980, February 27)

Occupation after Marriage:

A year after her marriage, Hillary Clinton, retaining her maiden name for work, joined the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of the Legal Services Corporation in 1978. That same year, Bill Clinton was elected to the first of five terms as Governor of Arkansas. The following year she became a full partner at the Rose Law Firm. She was twice named to the list of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.” She also represented and later served on the board of Arkansas businesses including TCBY ("Too Good to Be Yoghurt"), and Wal-Mart. As First Lady of Arkansas for twelve years, she chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital, Legal Services, and the Children's Defense Fund. Mrs. Clinton wrote a weekly newspaper column entitled "Talking It Over."

Presidential Campaign and Inauguration:

During the 1992 Democratic primaries, several incidents occurred which proved to be the primary basis for much of the controversy and criticism that would be leveled at Hillary Clinton as First Lady. Before the New York primary, former California Governor Jerry Brown challenged Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton with suggestions that Hillary Clinton's work as an attorney involved state funds was unethical, hinting in general terms that she had somehow profited from her husband's position. Clinton himself remarked at the time that his wife would be a full partner if he became President, terming it a "two for one" deal. Finally, in response to some of these questions, Hillary Clinton sharply retorted to a journalist's question at a public appearance that was being covered by broadcast media that the only way a working attorney who happened to also be the governor's wife could have avoided any controversy would have been if she had "stayed home and baked cookies." The remark, frequently replayed on television as a single clip from her more explicit response, sparked public debate as to whether she was intending to demean the role of stay-at-home mother. It was further fueled by Republican party supporters who sought to claim that Hillary Clinton was not in line with "family values" a phrase that was often used in the campaign of 1992. At the Republican National Convention, several speakers, including conservative columnist Pat Buchanan and Vice Presidential wife Marilyn Quayle either mentioned Hillary Clinton by name or made allusions to her as an example of what their party was running against. In a lighter tone, Good Housekeeping magazine sponsored a cookie contest asking readers to vote for their choice of recipes used by the wives of the two presidential candidates. During the 1996 campaign, Hillary Clinton addressed the Democratic convention, underlining some of the Administration's policy gains and aspirations in children's and women's issues. At the 1993 Inauguration, the Clintons created a new precedent by having a president-elect's child, their daughter Chelsea, join at the podium at the moment of the oath-of-office administration. First Lady:1993, January 20 - 2001, January 20 45 years old Within the first five days of becoming First Lady, Hillary Clinton was named by her husband to head the President's Task Force on Health Care Reform, overseeing research, investigatory trips, financial reports, numerous committees composed of medical and insurance professionals, lawmakers and other government officials, public service leaders, and consumer rights advocates. In this capacity, she became the third First Lady to testify before Congress, appearing to the House committee on health insurance reform in September 1993. When the plan devised was attacked as too complicated or an intention leading to "socialized medicine" the Administration decided not to push for a vote and it never came to a vote in the Senate or House, abandoned in September, 1994. Hillary Clinton's interest in the subject, however, had helped raise national consciousness about the problem of citizens who lived without any medical insurance and she began to address an assortment of other medical problems facing many citizens. Perhaps the most successful component of her accomplishments as First Lady was initiating the Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997, a federal effort that provided state support for those children whose parents were unable to provide them with health coverage. She also successfully sought to increase the research funding for illnesses such as prostate cancer and childhood asthma at the National Institute of Health. The First Lady also gave voice to the illnesses that were affecting veterans of the Gulf War, with the possibility of their suffering the toxic side effects of chemical "Agent Orange" used in warfare.

Although she assumed a less open political role after the failure of the health care reform plan, the efforts on behalf of which she focused were fully public. She cited the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 as the achievement she initiated and shepherded that provide her with the greatest satisfaction. Beginning with an article she wrote on orphaned children in 1995, through a series of public events on the issue, policy meetings with Health and Human Service officials, private foundation leaders, the drafting of policy recommendations, and eventually lobbying with legislators led to its passage. The First Lady led a second effort, the Foster Care Independence bill, to help older, unadopted children transition to adulthood. She also hosted numerous White House conferences that related to children's health, including early childhood development (1997) and school violence (1999). She lent her support to programs ranging from "Prescription for Reading," in which pediatricians provided free books for new mothers to read to their infants as their brains were rapidly developing, to nationwide immunization against childhood illnesses. She also supported an annual drive to encourage older women to seek a mammography to prevent breast cancer, coverage of the cost being provided by Medicare.

Hillary Clinton was the only First Lady to keep an office in the West Wing among those of the president's senior staff. While her familiarity with the intricate political issues and decisions faced by the President, she openly discussed his work with him, yet stated that ultimately she was but one of several individuals he consulted before making a decision. They were known to disagree. Regarding his 1993 passage of welfare reform, the First Lady had reservations about federally supported childcare and Medicaid. When issues that she was working on were under discussion at the morning senior staff meetings, the First Lady often attended. Aides kept her informed of all pending legislation and oftentimes sought her reaction to issues as a way of gauging the President's potential response. Weighing in on his Cabinet appointments and knowing many of the individuals he named, she had working relationships with many of them. She persuaded Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to convene a meeting of corporate CEOs for their advice on how companies could be persuaded to adopt better child care measures for working families. With Attorney General Janet Reno, the First Lady helped to create the Department of Justice's Violence Against Women office. One of her closest Cabinet allies was Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Following her international trips, Hillary Clinton wrote a report of her observations for Albright. A primary effort they shared was globally advocating gender equity in economics, employment, health care and education. During her trips to Africa (1997), Asia (1995), South America (1995, 1997) and the Central European former Soviet satellite nations (1997, 1998), Hillary Clinton emphasized "a civil society," of human rights as a road to democracy and capitalism. The First Lady was also one of the few international figures at the time who spoke out against the treatment of Afghani women by Islamist fundamentalist Taliban that had seized control of Afghanistan. One of the programs she helped create was Vital Voices, a U.S.-sponsored initiative to promote the participation of international women in their nation's political process. One result of the group's meetings, in Northern Ireland, was drawing together women leaders of various political factions that supported the Good Friday peace agreement that brought peace to that nation long at civil war. Hillary Clinton was also an active supporter of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), often awarding its micro-loans to small enterprises begun by women in developing nations that aided the economic growth in their impoverished communities. Certainly one of her more important speeches as First Lady addressing the need for equal rights for women was international in scope and created controversy in the nation where it was made: the September 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China.

Hillary Clinton had encountered controversy from practically the beginning of her tenure. By her having assuming a more overtly political role than any of her predecessors, Hillary Clinton was an easy target for the political opposition; oftentimes it was she personally that was attacked, beyond the words she spoke or actions she took. Much as Nancy Reagan had served as a target for her husband's opponents, so too did Hillary Clinton become a target for those who disagreed with the Administration. The American Conservative Union, for example, solicited money to fight what they termed the First Lady's "radical agenda." Not all of the controversy she engendered, however, was political. The same New York Times columnist, William Safire, who had attacked Nancy Reagan, now attacked Hillary Clinton. Much like Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady she most emulated and had studied, Hillary Clinton expected the partisan attacks as a result of activism. Like Eleanor Roosevelt, she wrote a newspaper column, a weekly syndicated piece, and made hundreds of speeches, oftentimes without notes. Also like Eleanor Roosevelt, she authored books during her tenure. For the spoken word version of her book regarding family policies, It Takes a Village, Hillary Clinton was the recipient of the recording industry's Grammy Award. Just five months into the Administration, with the firing of the White House travel office staff, followed to months later by the suicide of Vincent Foster, White House counsel and friend and former law partner of the First Lady, Hillary Clinton found herself implicated in numerous investigations. At the end of 1993, a story broke in the media that a Justice Department investigation into a failed Arkansas real estate venture, concerning a potential development in the Ozarks called "Whitewater," mentioned her as a potential witness in the inquiry; there were immediate suggestions in the opposition press that she had somehow illegally profited. There was similar media speculation when it was disclosed that she had greatly profited in trading cattle futures through an experienced investor. All of this concerned matters long past to the 1992 campaign and the First Lady held an April 22, 1994 press conference in which she explained the details as proof of her not having taken any illegal actions. Political pressure, however, led to the President's appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the charges, a move the First Lady opposed. On January 26, 1996, she testified before a grand jury concerning the Whitewater scandal. Over time, the parameters of the investigation would enlarge to include other charges made against the President and First Lady that were questionable in their validity. In every case, the investigations led to no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. In time, the personal behavior of the President during an illicit affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky would be the only charge in which he would be found guilty, leading to the historic articles of impeachment brought against him in late 1998, of which he was acquitted in February of 1999. During the Lewinsky scandal, Hillary Clinton supported her husband's contentions of innocence regarding marital infidelity, believing the rumors, along with the other charges, to be the result of a "vast right-wing conspiracy." In August 1998, however, when independent counsel Kenneth Starr questioned the President directly in the White House, he confessed that he had lied regarding the extent of the affair. Hillary Clinton later admitted to being deeply wounded personally yet focusing on the public repercussions of the President's disclosure, made a strong statement of commitment to him and the Administration, believing a private matter had been wrong turned into a political attack. Her support of him at that critical juncture was believed by many media commentators at that emotionally heightened time to be an important factor, if not the greatest factor, in preventing a call for his resignation.

Hillary Clinton did not ignore the traditional role of First Lady. With a lifelong interest in regional American history, she initiated the Save America's Treasures program, a national effort that matched federal funds to private donations to rescue from deterioration and neglect, or restore to completion many iconic historic items and sites, including the flag which inspired the Star Spangled Banner, and the National First Ladies Historic Site in Canton, Ohio. As part of the Millennium Project which she initiated, monthly lectures that considered both America's past and forecasted its future were held in the East Room, and one of these became the first live simultaneous webcast from the mansion. In the White House, she initiated the first Sculpture Garden, which displayed large contemporary American works of art loaned from museums in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden on a rotating basis. In the White House state rooms, she placed on rotating display the donated handicrafts (pottery, glassware, etc.) of contemporary American artisans. She oversaw the restoration of the Blue Room on the state floor, and the redecoration of the Treaty Room into the President's study on the second floor. Using a unique venue of large white tents on the South Lawn that could accompany several thousand guests, she hosted many large entertainments, such as a St. Patrick's Day reception, a state dinner for visiting Chinese dignitaries, and a contemporary music concert that raised funds for music education in the public schools. For all the foods served in the White House, she hired a chef whose expertise was in American regional cooking. She also hosted a massive New Year's Eve party on the turning of the 20th century into the 21st century, as well as the November 2000 Bicentennial of the White House state dinner, an event at which more former Presidents and First Ladies were gathered together in the mansion than at any other time in its history.

In 1999, Hillary Clinton formed an exploratory committee to pursue the possibility of running for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan (New York Democrat) and she officially declared herself a candidate for the position several months later. On November 7, 2000, Hillary Clinton became the first First Lady ever elected to public office, winning the U.S. Senate seat from New York State.

Post-Presidential Life:

Sworn in as a U.S. Senator on January 1, 2001 but remaining First Lady until January 20 of that year, Hillary Clinton served simultaneously for twenty days as a member of one branch of government while married to the leader of another branch. She would not indulge the immediate media and public speculation that she would run for President of the United States in 2004, and then in 2008; instead she focused on and publicly discussed her work, assuming the lower public profile typical of most freshmen Senators.

Hillary Clinton sits on four Senate Committees with a total of eight subcommittee assignments: Senate Committee on Armed Services with three subcommittee assignments, on Airland, on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, and on Readiness and Management Support; Senate Environment and Public Works Committee with three subcommittee assignments on Clean Air, Wetlands, Private Property, and Nuclear Safety, on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water and on Superfund, Waste Control, and Risk Assessment; the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, with two subcommittee assignments, on Aging and on Children and Families; and the Senate Special Committee on Aging. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center in downtown New York City, Senator Clinton worked to secure $21.4 billion in funding to assist clean up and recovery, to provide health tracking for first responders and volunteers at Ground Zero and to create grants for redevelopment. In 2005, she issued two studies that examined the disbursement of federal homeland security funds to local communities and first responders. Senator Clinton visited American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq during the U.S. war in those nations. She became a national advocate both in public and in her Senate work on behalf of retaining and improving health and other benefits for veterans. As an advocate for her state, Senator Clinton led a bipartisan effort to bring broadband access to rural communities; co-sponsored the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act; included language in the Energy Bill to provide tax exempt bonding authority for environmentally conscious construction projects; and introduced an amendment calling for funding of new job creation to repair, renovate and modernize public schools. Senator Clinton won an extension of Unemployment Insurance, which passed on the first day of the 108th Congress. She was a vocal opponent of the Bush Administration's tax cuts.

Her memoirs Living History were published in 2003 and sold over 3 million copies both in the U.S. and in other nations; it was eventually translated into foreign languages including Chinese. When her husband, former President Clinton required immediate heart surgery in October of 2004, Senator Clinton cancelled her public schedule to be with him. She resides in Chappaqua, New York and Washington, D.C.

Bron: http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/

Tuesday - FUNday

Ieder commentaar van mij doet afbreuk aan dit briljante filmpje.

FUN

David Letterman (Late Show) in optima forma.

'Sarah Palin: What is worse - this or the jokes?'

Waar rook is...................

Duik even in uw herinneringen.

Nee, laat ik u een handje helpen. Het is tenslotte vijf jaar geleden.

De toenmalige premier Balkenende II (we hebben nu met IV van doen) liet zijn ambtswoning opknappen.

Het schoonmaakmiddel was thinner en dat mag wettelijk niet gebruikt worden.

Helaas pindakaas. De boel ging in de fik. Een schilder kwam om.

Zoals te doen gebruikelijk in Nederland kwam er een onderzoek met een daaraan gekoppeld rapport.

TNO stelde nog iets anders vast, namelijk dat er brandgevaarlijke wandtapijten in het Catshuis hingen. Die zouden een 'Volendamreactie' hebben veroorzaakt.

Ook was er sprake van een dubieuze kachel.

Kortom, een incompleet rapport dat binnen de kortste keren in een bureaulade verdween. Ambtenaren wisten het vijf jaar lang verborgen te houden.

Nu is het boven water.

Ja ja Zeeuwse premier! Luctor et emergo. Dat geldt ook voor een TNO-rapport.

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Het is komkommertijd dus de Tweede Kamer is blij met deze affaire. JP mag uitleg komen geven en zal met de geboren onschuld zijn ambtenaren dekken.

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Jacob Cats, geboren te Brouwershaven op 10 november 1577, zou het wel weten:

Thinner in een doofpot is catastrofaal.

Zeevoer

Wat een luxe. Ik mag tot woensdagavond in Brouw blijven.

Manlief verlaat mij zometeen.

Hij aan het werk, ik ook.

Hij in een muf kantoor, ik in de frisse buitenlucht.

Onder de parasol probeer ik een begin te maken aan een tweede roman.

Proberen, want mijn hoofd is nog steeds bij mijn huidige boek.

Aan het corrigeren lijkt nu een einde gekomen. Een uur geleden heb ik de laatste vier foutjes naar de opmaker gemaild.
----------------------------------------------------------

Gisteren was het Vaderdag en dus nam ik de vader van mijn kind mee naar een etablissement met de toepasselijke naam De Heerenkeet.

Ik word er op aangesproken dat ik alleen maar luxe en dure restaurants/hotels bespreek. Zelf vind ik dat grote onzin, maar okee. Bij deze dan een middenklasser, want twaalf joekels van oesters voor €12,50 vind ik niet onoverkomelijk.

De Heerenkeet ligt op een prachtige (afgelegen) locatie aan de Oosterschelde. Als de wind goed staat is het heerlijk toeven op het terras.

Dit is bij uitstek een restaurant voor visliefhebbers. Verwacht geen haute cuisine. Verwacht geen trendy inrichting. Verwacht geen snelle bediening.

De Heerenkeet komt over als een oubollige tent.

Het is kreeftentijd. Toch sloegen wij de daarop afgestemde menu's over. Vier gerechten met kreeft is mij iets te veel van het goede.

De oesters waren yammie, de vissoep was yammie, de tarbot was yammie, zeekraal (€4,50 bijbetalen) was yammie, de witte Rivaner van Zeeuwse komaf was eerst yammie, maar begon allengs te vervelen.

Een kan kraanwater werd berekend.

€1,50 -: Ik zou er niet over mogen vallen, maar doe dat toch. Van dit soort bekrompenheid gaan de haren recht overeind staan.

'De volgende keer vullen we onze glazen onder de kraan van de prachtige nieuwe wc's,' verzon P.

Want van een volgende keer komt het.

Malgré tout.

Vuile gasten

Sinds een jaar verhuren wij ons Brouwse huisje tussen mei en oktober. We verdienen er niet echt aan, maar het compenseert onze kosten.

In de zomermaanden is het ons sowieso te druk, dus waarom niet anderen mee laten genieten van deze heerlijke plek.

Door de economische crisis is de verhuur van ons huisje toegenomen. Het is goedkoop en dichtbij.

Toen ik hier donderdagmiddag binnenkwam trof mijn optrekje in een andere staat dan ik het had achtergelaten. De opstelling was veranderd.

Op zich niet zo gek, maar alleen voor het verhuurseizoen.

Waar ik niet om kon lachen was de viezigheid. Dat had ik nog niet eerder ervaren.

Het servies leek voor andere doeleinden gebruikt te zijn dan waarvoor bedoeld. Een grote melkkan kreeg ik uiteindelijk schoon met Antikal en bleekwater.

De ramen zaten vol kleverige spetters. Zo ook de tafel (ik denk Maggi).

Ook had ik moeite de stenen vloer schoon te krijgen. Op handen en knieën kroop ik van vies naar vies om het van de vloer af te krabben. Onder mijn nagels haalde ik een ondefinieerbaar kleverig goedje vandaan.

Vrijdag kwam P.

Ook hij ontdekte het een en ander, zij het in de tuin. Her en der kale plekken in het gras.

'Waarom staat die bloempot daar, zo half op het gras?'

Ik haalde mijn schouders op.

P. tilde de bloempot op en zette die op de gebruikelijke plaats op het terras.

Er kwam een groot gat onder vandaan. Het hoe en waarom zal altijd een mysterie blijven, maar de pot was er letterlijk als dekmantel opgezet.

Vreemde gasten.

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*****22/6 - 10.00 uur

Zojuist vond ik - weggepropt in een kast - mijn splinternieuwe tafelkleed voor de buitentafel. Ik sloeg het open en schrok. Wit was zwart. Goor, goor, goor.

Ik weet niet wat er overheen is gegaan of waar het voor gebruikt is, maar de rillingen liepen over mijn rug.

Deze gasten zijn pertinent niet meer onze gasten.

Asielkippen

.......................................kent u die uitdrukking, beste lezers?

Ze bestaan echt.

Er zal maar plotseling een pikzwarte zwerfkip je oprijlaan opwaggelen.

Het overkwam mijn vriendin M. te S. allemaal.

Terwijl zij de spruitjes stond af te halen tippelde er een lopende legbatterij haar keuken binnen.

Het dier vertederde mijn vriendin onmiddellijk.


Haar man zag de bui = stok al (in zijn slaapkamer) hangen en timmerde dit riante onderkomen voor Madame Tokkie.
Sindsdien is ze niet meer weg te slaan. De kippenvilla biedt onderdak aan veel meer kakelvrienden, maar tot nu toe is zij single.

Weet u nog een behoeftige, eenzame haan ...............................

Behalve het tochtige hennetje zullen ook de buren van M. te S. u zeer dankbaar zijn.

Als dank voor de gratis B&B legt Madame Tokkie zo nu en dan een ei met een bijzondere bijsmaak. Ik weet hoe dat komt, maar mijn vriendin M. is het niet met mijn uitleg eens.

Ze voert Madame Tokkie iedere dag plakjes kaas. De ene dag met spikkeltjes, de andere dag met brandnetels en vervolgens met mosterd of kruidnageltjes.

Ja, daar zou ik ook raar van gaan schijten.

Post van L.

*****************************
"Mevrouw, wij kunnen hier niets acuuts vinden, uw bloed is uitstekend, het enige wat afwijkt in het medisch onderzoek is een klein wondje in uw mond, en neurologische tests wijzen niet op een beroerte of een vergiftiging of een hersenvliesontsteking... Wij zullen een rapportje naar uw huisarts sturen."

De huisarts, de volgende ochtend: "Goed nieuws dus... duizeligheidsstoornissen verdwijnen vaak vanzelf weer, wacht daarom nog even af. Over een paar weken maakt u een afspraak met de neuroloog. Het zou Menière kunnen zijn of een beschadiging in het evenwichtsorgaan, maar de tests om dat uit te wijzen zijn complex en grote kans dat het na een week of vijf vanzelf verdwijnt."

"En mijn werk dan, in 'een week of vijf'?"

"U voelt zelf wel wat u aankunt."

"Maar dat is het nou juist, dat voel ik niet! Omdat de aanvallen plotseling en onverwacht komen, snapt u. Ik kan moeilijk de hele dag thuisblijven voor een aanval van misschien een half uur die zich misschien niet eens zal voordoen. Maar anderzijds, op mijn werk ineens niet meer uit mijn woorden komen, terwijl ik eindredacteur ben, is tamelijk beschamend."

"Hoe u daarmee kunt omgaan, kunt u misschien met uw bedrijfsarts bespreken."

De assistente van de bedrijfsarts, een uur later: "Sorry, wij hebben uw dossier al teruggestuurd naar uw werkgever met de mededeling dat u vanmorgen niet bent komen opdagen op het spreekuur."

"Ik had u gisteren gebeld om te zeggen dat ik het misschien niet zou halen omdat ik naar het ziekenhuis moest. Daar hebben ze me tot half drie vannacht onderzocht en daarna was ik nogal moe... Ziet u, ik voel me namelijk niet zo lekker... Kan ik een nieuwe afspraak maken?"

"Zo gaat dat niet mevrouw. U bent niet komen opdagen vanmorgen en dat heet weigering. Uw werkgever kan u daarvoor op het matje roepen, weet u dat u bij ziekte verplicht bent mee te werken aan medisch onderzoek?"

Grrrrr. Het goede nieuws is dat er geen beroerte op de loer ligt. Het slechte nieuws is dat niemand zegt hoe dat dan moet: "afwachten". Waar bestaat in godsnaam "afwachten" uit? Gelukkig heb ik de liefste vriendinnen ter wereld.
Dank je El, voor je snelle actie.

Dit stukje even printen en direct naar de directie van de ARBO Amsterdam sturen.

Angst

heb ik nu voor de gezondheid van mijn vriendin, steun en toeverlaat L.

Twee weken geleden viel zij tijdens haar werk plotseling om. Sindsdien draait de wereld voor haar ogen en functioneert er van alles niet meer goed in haar hoofd.

Haar huisarts dacht aan een ontsteking in het middenoor, waar in feite niets aan te doen is. De andere huisarts (het is een collectief) kwam tot een veel ernstiger diagnose.
Maar er werd geen actie ondernomen.

Vanuit Rotterdam heb ik dagelijks contact met L. gehad. Ze wist, ondanks dat ze zich hondsberoerd voelde, toch de proefdruk van mijn boek te corrigeren. Daar ben ik haar ongelooflijk dankbaar voor.

Vanmorgen had ik haar weer aan de telefoon en ik schrok me te pletter. L. kon niet uit haar woorden komen. Ze kon geen zinnen meer formuleren.

Met heel veel moeite kon ik telefoonnummers bij haar loskrijgen. Ik heb aan de noodrem getrokken en de noodklok geluid.
Ze was, geloof ik, blij dat ik ingreep.

Kortom, L. wacht nu (23.47 uur) in het ziekenhuis, met een pijnlijke infuusnaald in haar te magere polsje, op de uitslag van onderzoeken en testjes.

Ik ben opgelucht dat ze is waar ze hoort te zijn.

Voor de rest overheerst alleen maar angst.

*** (update 9.50 uur)
Vannacht om 2 uur belt ze. Oververmoeid en lichtelijk geagiteerd, het ziekenhuis verlatend.
Er is niets gevonden.
Dus is er ook geen diagnose gesteld.

De angst ebt weg, maar de bezorgdheid blijft.

En een stuk of wat vraagtekens.

Signalen

*****************************
Wie een kick krijgt van klachten, onder andere over onze radio/televisie/telefoon/internetprovider, moet het desbetreffende label aanklikken. Ik heb mijn hart meerdere keren gelucht: te weten op 21-4-2008, 6-11-2008 en 16-5-2009.

Inmiddels drie weken geleden heb ik weer energie en geduld verzameld om Tele 2 te bellen. Zowel televisie en internet vielen avond na avond uit.

P. had in januari een goedwillende medewerkster van de technische dienst gesproken, die hem een referentienummer had gegeven.

Toen ik de - slecht functionerende - helpdesk/ klantenservice voor de honderd-zoveelste-keer aan de telefoon had, zette ik deze troef (het referentienummer) in.

Het werkte. Ik werd vrijwel direct doorgeschakeld naar de technische dienst.
Daar zitten mensen die weten hoe een televisie, telefoon en computer eruitzien.

Een bereidwillige dame onderkende ons probleem direct.
'Het is absoluut niet goed. We krijgen hier verkeerde signalen binnen. Er moet echt een technische man aan te pas komen.'
'Ja, maar daar gaat weer twee weken overheen,' jammerde ik.
'Nee, daar ga ik direct werk van maken,' was haar antwoord.

En ze voegde de daad bij het woord.

Twee dagen later, om half negen 's ochtends, stond de technische man voor mijn deur. Ik trakteerde hem op koffie. Hij constateerde dat wij nauwelijks signalen ontvingen.
Dat beaamde ik.

De fout zou door de installateur gemaakt zijn en was makkelijk te verhelpen. De splitter werd verwijderd en kabeltjes aan elkaar verbonden.

Mijn cynische opmerking dat de klantenservice van Tele 2 ook heel traag mijn signalen oppikte, begreep hij direct.
Tele 2 draagt de kosten en daar is geen discussie over mogelijk.

Alles functioneerde en functioneert nog steeds.

Snel afkloppen...........

Van beenham snijdt men plakken

Ben ik in Kralingen, dan moet ik boodschappen doen in de Lusthofstraat.

Ik heb regelmatig geschreven over mijn oude woonwijk, waar ik een haat-liefdeverhouding mee heb. Mijn boek speelt zich grotendeels af in Kralingen.

Daarom wordt de presentatie van mijn debuutroman georganiseerd door de Kralingse dames van Amesz (helaas ligt hun website er tijdelijk uit). Vanmiddag had ik een voorbespreking met de dames.

Vervolgens deed ik, zoals gezegd, mijn boodschappen in de Lusthofstraat. Bij slagerij van Linschoten werd ik in mijn nek gesprongen door mevrouw Franny.

"U had beloofd een stukje te schrijven over onze slagerij. Ik heb het nooit gevonden op Vertelsels."

Franny had helemaal gelijk. Enkele jaren geleden had ik het plan opgevat een serie te maken over de 'kleine' middenstand in dit lommerrijke Rotterdamse stadsdeel.

Het is echter nooit verder gekomen dan banketbakkerij Carlier. Kort daarop verhuisden wij naar het centrum.

Maar daar had Franny van Linschoten geen boodschap aan. Juist omdat zij een prijzenswaardig bedrijf runnen.

De trouwe, vriendelijke, vakkundige bediening geeft deze winkel een extra dimensie.

Hubert van Linschoten gaat met zijn tijd mee, maar blijft een ambachtelijke slager.

Zo, en ik ben mijn belofte nagekomen. Beter laat dan nooit.

Krijg ik de volgende keer een plakje worst bij het afrekenen?

All the presidents wives 40

BARBARA PIERCE BUSH

Born:
Place: New York City, New York
Date: 8 June, 1925

Father:
Marvin Pierce, born 17 June, 1893, Sharpsville, Pennsylvania; President of McCall [Publishing] Corporation; died 17 July, 1969

Mother:
Pauline Robinson Pierce, born 1896, Richwood, Ohio; Pauline Pierce served as the Garden Club of America conservation chairman. Her father had served on the Ohio Supreme Court; died, 23 September, 1949, Harrison County, New York in car accident.
*Marvin Pierce married a second time in June 1952, to artist and Associated Press reporter Willa Martin.

Ancestry:
English, German, Scottish, French; Kate Pritzel, the mother of Barbara Bush's paternal grandfather, was born on December 19, 1841 in Sweizel, Germany, eventually immigrating to Pennsylvania, where she married Jonas James Pierce. She is also a direct descendant of Henry Sampson, an English immigrant who arrived in the colonies on the Mayflower. Some twenty generations back, Barbara Bush had an ancestor, Thomas De Saluzza, who was born in Saluzza-Cuneo, Italy, in 1286; he and his wife Leugia De Eva moved to England. She also shares several family lines with Abigail Adams, the only other woman who was both wife and mother to U.S. Presidents. One chart claims that some thirty generations back into her genealogy that Lady Godiva was an ancestor. Barbara Pierce Bush is also a fourth cousin four times removed of President Franklin Pierce, and not a third great grandniece as was previously understood. They share an early New England ancestor named Thomas Pierce, and she has admitted her disappointment at the 14th president's low rating among historians.

Birth Order and Siblings:
Third of four children; one sister, two brothers: Martha Pierce Rafferty (born 1920), James Pierce (1921-1993), Scott Pierce (born 1930)
Physical Appearance:
Grey eyes, brown hair that turned grey and eventually her signature snowy white color

Religious Affiliation:
Episcopalian

Education:
Milton Public School , 1931-1937; Rye, New York;
Rye Country Day School, 1937-1940, Rye, New York;
Ashley Hall, boarding high school, 1940-1943, Charleston, South Carolina;
Smith College, 1943-1944, dropped out after freshman year

Occupation before Marriage:
With a father whose professional career was in magazine publishing, Barbara Bush's love of reading was encouraged early. She recalled that her childhood evenings were spent with her family members gathered together, each of them engrossed in their reading material. Although the Pierce family had servants and enjoyed a more privileged life than most families during the Depression, they were not among the wealthiest set of Rye, New York. Barbara Bush had a sense of mischief and wit even as a child. She was also athletic, especially enjoying swimming, tennis and bike riding. At a 1941 Christmas dance, when she was only 16 years old, she met George Herbert Walker Bush, her future husband, who was then a senior at the boarding school Phillips Academy Andover. There was an immediate mutual attraction and they began writing to each other. She went as his date to his senior prom. Bush completed pilot training by 1943, becoming the youngest pilot then in the navy. The same year Barbara Bush graduated from Ashley Hall and entered Smith College. Bush named his bomber plane "Barbara" after her. The early forties were lively and active years for Barbara Bush. She went to work during the summers, first at a Lord & Taylor department store in Greenwich, Connecticut, then a nuts and bolts factory that provided supplies for the U.S. war effort. She made a cross-country train trip with the German nurse of her baby niece because the woman feared being assumed as a Nazi spy. In California, she tried surfing. When she began Smith College, Barbara Bush wrote that it opened her perceptions about the world: it was the first racially integrated school she attended. She also made the freshman soccer team and served as captain.

One and a half years after their meeting, Barbara Pierce and George Bush became engaged, just before Bush went off to war during World War II as a Navy torpedo bomber pilot, in which capacity he would fly 58 combat missions. She later admitted that her attention was not on academics but on her fiancé: he was nearly killed after being shot down on September 2, 1944. When he returned on leave, Barbara dropped out of college in Northampton, Massachusetts. Two weeks later, on January 6, 1945, they married.

Marriage:
19 years old to George Herbert Walker Bush (born 12 June, 1924) Navy Lieutenant Pilot (junior grade), Yale freshman student, on 6 January, 1945 at First Presbyterian Church, Rye, New York; after a honeymoon in New York City where they saw Meet Me in St. Louis at Radio city Music Hall and then Sea Island, Georgia. For the first eight months of their marriage, Barbara Bush moved from Michigan to Maine to Virginia as her husband's new squadron training and formation required his presence at different naval bases in those states.

Children:
Five children, four sons, two daughters;
George Walker Bush (born 6 July, 1946),
Pauline Robinson "Robin" Bush (20, December 20, 1949 - 11 October, 1953),
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born 11 February, 1953),
Neil Mallon Bush (born 22 January, 1955),
Marvin Pierce Bush (born 22 December, 1956),
Dorothy "Doro" Bush Koch (born 18 August, 1959)

George W. Bush became the 43rd President of the United States in 2000, making him the second presidential son to attain the nation's highest office. Jeb Bush was elected governor of Florida in 1998.
In May, 2000, Robin Bush was re-interred at a gravesite on the grounds of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

Occupation after Marriage:
As a newlywed, Barbara Bush moved with her husband as he continued to train as a navy pilot with his squadron during World War II at three bases around the country (see above). He was assigned to the VT-153 torpedo bomber squadron at the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach as the final World War II air assault on Japan was being prepared. That mission never took place because President Truman dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, ending the war. Newlyweds George and Barbara Bush participated in the public celebration of V-J Day ("Victory Over Japan") in the streets of Virginia Beach.

World War II ended while Bush was training with his new squadron; accepted at Yale, Barbara Bush moved with him to New Haven, Connecticut where she worked at the college campus store until giving birth to George W. Bush, her first child, in July of 1946. Upon Bush's graduation, he decided to relocate to Odessa, Texas and enter the oil business, starting as an equipment clerk for the large Dresser Industries, a holding company with oil drilling subsidiaries that was owned by a close friend and classmate of his father. They then moved to Los Angeles, where he became a drilling-bit salesman and moved to numerous locations in the southern California area, including Whittier, a town then represented in Congress by Richard Nixon. The Bushes would move some twenty-nine times during their marriage. They returned to Texas, settling in Midland in 1950 and shortly thereafter Bush co-founded his own oil development company that merged three years later with another company to form Zapata Oil.

While her husband was often away on business, Barbara Bush's life was strictly confined to the traditional responsibilities of motherhood and housekeeping, as well as some civic activities including teaching Sunday school and volunteering for the local theater company, YMCA, United Way and hospital. Nevertheless, even her role as mother would have later public impact. The death of their two-year old daughter Robin, from leukemia in October 1953 was a tragedy for the family, the stress from which has been stated as the reason for Barbara Bush's brown hair starting to turn white) but it would lead her to support numerous leukemia and cancer research and treatment programs. Her son Neil's diagnosis as dyslexic, she began a lifelong interest in reading and literacy issues. When Barbara Bush had to drive her children across the country and up to her husband's family summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, she was accompanied by two African-American women, Julia May Cooper and Otha Fitzgerald and witnessed for herself for the first time, the reality of racial bigotry as the black women were not permitted to stay in hotels or motels or eat in restaurants in the South along with Barbara Bush and her children. Barbara Bush was appalled at segregation, and refused to dine or sleep where the other women were not permitted. She and her husband had already become members and supporters of the United Negro College Fund, an association that would continue into the White House years and beyond.

In 1959, the family moved to Houston, Texas where Bush was elected Republican Party chairman of Harris County three years later. In 1964, Barbara Bush participated in the first of a lifetime of political campaigns, an effort to elect her husband U.S. Senator from Texas. Although he lost, it put the Bushes into the national spotlight. He was elected to Congress in 1966, and again two years later, giving Barbara Bush her first introduction to the life of a political spouse in Washington. She became active in various charities and Republican women's activities. Bush lost a second bid for the Senate in 1970, but President Richard Nixon named him Ambassador to United Nation, giving Barbara Bush the opportunity to begin a lifetime of friendships and acquaintances among international political leaders. She had advised her husband against accepting Nixon's offer to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee because of the inevitable damage he would suffer by association as the Watergate scandal was burgeoning.

In appreciation of Bush's party loyalty in having taken the chairmanship, Nixon's successor Gerald Ford named Bush as head of the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing, China in 1974. It was a brief period of time when Barbara Bush could enjoy time with her husband while he was on assignment, the couple often bicycling to explore the city. It was in marked contrast to his next assignment, head of the Central Intelligence Agency, a post he held until 1977. During that time, when they returned to live in Washington, Barbara Bush was unable to participate in any conversations with her husband about his work, since he was dealing with top secret issues. This sense of isolation, as well as a sudden perception that her life had less value than those of younger women who were now increasingly achieving their goals rather than helping their husband's achieve theirs led to a brief period when she suffered from depression. Although Barbara Bush later regretted that she did not seek professional help, she found understanding in her husband. She also determined to strike out more on her own, delivering speeches with a slide show about her life in China, and volunteering at a hospice, the Washington Home, where she undertook many humbling duties that served the dying, including bathing and feeding them, and cleaning.

No member of George Bush's staff or supporters could equal the fervor with which his wife would in her defense of his public service record and praise for his personal qualities when he ran in the presidential primaries for the Republican nomination in 1980. Barbara Bush disclosed at that time her support for continuing the effort to have the Equal Rights Amendment ratified and her belief that the Supreme Court decision on the rights of women to terminate their pregnancies was a correct one, views also expressed by her husband. This put them somewhat at odds with the conservative wing of the party led by former California governor Ronald Reagan that was then eclipsing the moderate wing with which the Bushes had been identified. Thus, when Bush accepted Reagan's offer to run as his vice president, he and Barbara Bush had to sublimate their different views. During her eight years as the wife of the Vice President (20 January, 1981 - 20, January, 1989), Barbara Bush determined to make no news that could potentially detract attention from the First Lady Nancy Reagan. The two women were not personally close. Barbara Bush did, however, begin to take an active role in several literacy organizations and familiarized herself with many of the statistics, solutions and efforts being made to confront both child and adult illiteracy. Barbara Bush also traveled the world extensively with her husband on his official trips. Now comfortable with speaking to groups, her public addresses took on a quality of self-deprecating wit. When, however, she made sharp offhand remarks about the 1984 Democratic vice presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, they were widely reported in the media and she publicly apologized and also telephoned Ferraro.
Presidential Campaign and Inauguration:

Barbara Bush had the knowledge and experience of two presidential campaigns as a vice presidential candidate's wife by the time her husband was nominated for the presidency at the 1988 Republican Convention. She broke precedent by becoming the first candidate's spouse to address the convention that nominated her husband, focusing on the candidate as a family man. The Bush campaign made generous use of the large Bush clan, including television commercials that showed George and Barbara Bush with some of their twelve grandchildren. The message underscored an unspoken difference with the Reagans, whose family members were sometimes in discord with them. Also contrasting with Nancy Reagan was the image of Barbara Bush that only emphasized her domestic interests in gardening, family life and church. She herself became adept at drawing attention to unthreatening full head of white hair, matronly figure and disinterest in wearing designer clothing. She also avoided discussion of political issues and controversy throughout the campaign, claiming she did not know enough to discuss anything except to repeat and defend her husband's views. She would express her views on some issues, such as support of the death penalty for hardened criminals, if they concurred with those of the candidate. There has been ample evidence from those who interacted with her during the campaign, however, to suggest that she was actively involved in the practical political moves, responses and directives of the campaign strategy. Publicly, she would either joke about or vigorously deny the printed but unproven rumors that her husband had once had a relationship with a woman member of his staff.

Following his 1989 swearing-in ceremony, George and Barbara Bush revived the Inauguration Day tradition begun by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter of walking part of the parade route back to the White House. She and President Bush revived a second, more ancient Inaugural tradition - the first open house Inaugural reception since Taft. On the morning following the swearing-in ceremony, once the Bushes were installed in their new home, a stream of citizens that had waited through the night, were greeted by the new President and First Lady and toured through the mansion. There is also some suggestion that Barbara Bush may have influenced a portion of her husband's Inaugural Address, specifically addressing social issues that she would admit were "important to me" but would only say her influence was one of "osmosis."

At the 1992 Republican Convention which renominated her husband for a second term, Barbara Bush was a popular speaker who seemed to be one of the few prominent figures there who were able to bring the gap between the two wings of the party, moderates and conservatives, remarking that "however you define family, that's what we mean by family values." Just prior to the convention, she had also stated empathically that she did not believe the issue of abortion should be addressed in its platform and that it was "a private matter," suggesting she was "pro-choice" and against the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, a fact she confirmed afterwards in her post-White House memoirs. She also criticized the Republican National Committee chairman Rich Bond for permitting campaign attacks on the views of the spouse of the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. On the campaign trail, she was a vigorous and personal defender of George Bush's personal qualities, presidential record and professional qualifications. Despite her own enormous appeal to many citizens, it was not enough to affect a re-election for her husband.

First Lady:
63 years old
20 January 1989 - 20 January, 1993
The hallmark of Barbara Bush's tenure as First Lady was her focused campaign to bring national attention to, and help eradicate illiteracy in America. Having been involved in the issue for eight previous years as the Vice President's wife, she was not only able to immediately begin her efforts following the Inauguration, but had already a national network of support in place, consisting of experts, publishers, financial supporters, volunteers, school administrators, and national, state and local civic leaders. Early in the administration, Barbara founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, a private organization that solicited grants from public and private institutions to support literacy programs. "I'm talking about the big, bouncy kind [of family], the single parent, extended families, divorced, homeless and migrant," she clarified. At the time of her tenure, statistics showed that 35 million adults could not read above the eight-grade level and that 23 million were not beyond a fourth-grade level. She appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show addressing the issue, and made regular broadcasts on Mrs. Bush's Story Time, a national radio program that stressed the importance of reading aloud to children. One aspect of adopting literacy as an issue that provided Barbara Bush with an opportunity to address a wide variety of topical issues was, as she pointed out, that a person's inability to read or fully comprehend what they might be able to partially read could have a devastating impact on all elements of their lives: education, employment, housing, safety, health, parenthood, crime, travel. She did go on record as stating that she did not believe there should be a law that established English as the official language of the United States because she felt it had "racial overtones." Thus she was able to address many social problems that were unique to the era of her husband's presidency of the early 1990's like homelessness, AIDS, and teenage pregnancy.

During her first week in the White House, Barbara Bush brought national attention to the needs of indigent and homeless families by making a visit to "Martha's Table" an inner-city center providing meals for poor families and daytime and after-school activities for homeless children, and also running a mobile soup-and-sandwich kitchen through the streets of Washington. She donated her family's used clothing to thrift stores which raised money for charitable organizations and also offered low-cost resale to the needy. Often visiting homeless family shelters, Barbara Bush also publicly raised an issue that was rarely considered in coping with the problem - abandoned, single, unmarried mothers, many of them teenagers, who were receiving no help from the fathers of the children. Although she assumed the traditional view of the Republican Party that social programs were best funded and administered by private charities and organizations rather than by the government, she was not averse to claiming government responsibility in some cases, once remarking at a center for homeless children, "forget about government cutbacks."

Barbara Bush made the front page of many global newspapers when, during a visit to "Grandma's House," a pediatric AIDS care center, she held a baby infected with the virus and posed for photographers to record what was then an act that was often misunderstood as making one susceptible to contracting it. She then went to hug an adult with AIDS as well. She took the President to the National Institute of Health to meet with male patients who had AIDS, and attended the funeral of the heroic teenager Ryan White who succumbed to AIDS after leading a long public education campaign on the issue. When there was an AIDS memorial vigil where gatherers held candles, she placed candles in all the White House windows and asked several family members of those who had died of the illness to bring to her in the White House parts of a national AIDS quilt that was then on display on the national mall. Although she told the press that because of the federal deficit, increased funding was an issue the President would have to decide, Time magazine credited Barbara Bush's concern for those with AIDS for influencing the President to propose increased research and treatment funding. She was further credited as being the inside advocate for the President's signing of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act and invited the first openly gay and lesbian citizens to the presidential signing ceremony. She wrote to the president of the Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, "I firmly believe we cannot tolerate discrimination against any individuals or groups… [it] always brings with it pain and perpetuates hate and intolerance."

The first First Lady to hire an African-American as her press secretary, Barbara Bush made numerous gestures to illustrate the long personal commitment that she and her husband held regarding civil rights of African Americans. Throughout her four years in the White House, she headlined numerous Martin Luther King Day programs in local grammar schools. She also gave particular attention to traditionally black colleges, having once served on the board of Morehouse College, a medical school largely attended by African-Americans. Washington Post reporter David Broder credited Barbara Bush with being behind the appointment of Louis Sullivan as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the only African-American member of the Bush Cabinet. Among those she listed as heroines were the liberal Democratic Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and Dorothy Height, the civil rights leaders and friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, and named Frederick Douglass as the historic figure who most inspired her. Among the thousands of graduation ceremonies she was invited to address in the spring of 1989, Barbara Bush chose a relatively obscure black woman's college, Bennett College. She encouraged a group of black Muslims to patrol an inner-city neighborhood plagued by drug crime. In an extensive interview with a leading African-American publication, Ebony, Barbara Bush bluntly addressed the realities of racial bigotry as she witnessed it from her unique perspective. She also emphasized that her influence as a "white-haired white lady" was limited within minority communities and that the primary role she could play was to speak out on prejudice.

In 1990, Barbara Bush was asked to speak at Wellesley College, sparking an unexpected reaction from the women students. Many didn’t want her to speak because they felt she defined herself solely through the person she married, rather than as an individual with her own life and interests. Barbara Bush understood their reaction, quipping "I was twenty myself." She nevertheless considered the invitation a serious opportunity to address what she believed was both an opportunity and conflict that was unique to women coming of age at that time, the desire to have both a family and a career. Bringing Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of Soviet President, with her, Barbara Bush’s speech was well received by the students; it was a gracious, serious but humorous look at diversity, a changing world and a woman’s role in that world. She said that perhaps some one in the audience might one day follow in her footsteps as an aide, supporter and helpmate to a President, ". . . and I wish him well!"

Within the first 100 days of the Bush Administration, the First Lady polled higher approval ratings than did the President or Vice President and a "fan club" even formed in San Francisco for her. Her clothing style generated interest with the creation of "Barbara Blue" by the Color Association of the U.S. and many commercial copies of her signature three-strand pearls. When her springer spaniel dog "Millie" gave birth to puppies, it made the cover of Life magazine and attracted overwhelming feature news coverage. In her slippers and housecoat, she walked her dog around the White House lawn, and in sneakers and jeans, she walked him at the presidential summer retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine. The dog and puppies became closely associated with the First Lady. When she was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, she publicly disclosed all details about her coping with the thyroid condition. At the first game played by the newly-created Texas Rangers baseball team that was partially owned by her son, George W., Barbara Bush became the first First Lady to throw out a ball to open the baseball season. She attributed her great popularity to her matronly figure and white hair because it was a benign identity and one which many middle-aged and older American women could relate. She was, she said, "Everybody's mother."

As a Vice President's wife, Barbara Bush was able to observe the often difficult relationship between her predecessor Nancy Reagan and the press with relative ease. She learned much about the importance of political figures to cultivate their public images by emphasizing some aspects of their real selves over other aspects that might make them appear less accessible or able to relate to the general population. Thus, she was cautious to avoid all political controversy and refrain from sharing her insight into the state of politics. Her son George W. called Barbara Bush a "genius with the media" and "better with the press" than the President. By teasing or joking with reporters, Barbara Bush was often able to avoid some of their questions that might lead into political controversy. She held monthly luncheons with various reporters who were supposed to keep the remarks off-the-record and her media coverage was generally complimentary. Few reporters covering the White House, however, believed that she was benignly removed from the best interests of her husband's Administration. Certainly, Barbara Bush was more comfortable making a public appearance to symbolize the personal support of herself and the President without having to address what sometimes seemed to critics to be a conflicting view in policy. Indeed she was known to be extremely defensive of the President. Reporter Daniel Weinraub described her as "blunt and opinionated… formidable and powerful." As President George W. Bush remarked about his mother's private demeanor, "Every mother has her own style. Mine was a little like an army drill sergeant's... my mother's always been a very outspoken person who vents very well - she'll just let rip if she's got something on her mind."

Republican Iowa Congressman Jim Leach believed that Barbara Bush was a "key element of the Administration." Many ascribed her policy influence as being a matter of raising general issues and concerns regarding different constituencies or considering pending legislation that the President had to sign or veto in frank discussions with him. If she spurred him to support some legislation, Barbara Bush was not known to have lobbied the President to initiate any specific legislation. While, like Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush adamantly refused to testify before Congress on behalf of her special project work, she did privately push the President to support the National Literacy Act, which permitted the use of libraries and other municipal property as evening literacy centers for adults. She was also part of an Oval Office briefing with the White House Counsel, the President and Vice President on the 25th Amendment, which regulated the definition of presidential illness and competence. She was credited with successfully urging the appointment of Jack Kemp as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Barbara Bush did not deny her potential influence on her husband or that they sometimes disagreed, but she insisted on keeping some details strictly a private matter between the two of them. She cultivated a wide network of various experts in different public policy-related work and would sometimes recommend that the President meet with them to deeply explore the particular issues. An avid campaigner, she was the Republican Party's most popular speaker on behalf of candidates running for national office.

On occasion, Barbara Bush let her real opinions known, such as calling for the Panama general Manuel Noriega to stand trial for his crimes against his people. She further offered the view that the President should negotiate with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein once he had released American prisoners held in bordering Kuwait. When she spoke out strongly in favor of gun control after a violent shootout in the capital and thus defied her husband's stance, there was a strong reaction from his base supporters in the National Rifle Association. Barbara Bush decided to halt any further comments on issues that might draw her into public debate. Thus, although she had stated her pro-choice views on abortion during the 1980 campaign, she refused to repeat her view. Only after she was out of the White House did she re-confirm this view in her memoirs.

During the Bush Administration, the fall of communism came to the Soviet Union and there were global repercussions, often prompting the Bushes to travel overseas and entertain many foreign heads of state. Humorously, when she met the spouse of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and he kissed her hand, Barbara Bush responded by kissing the hand of Denis Thatcher. A strong supporter of the Gulf War waged by her husband, Barbara Bush spent a Thanksgiving holiday with him among U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia.
Her time in the White House was also marked by personal challenges. She believed that her son Neil became a target of investigators looking into the demise of the Silverado Savings and Loan during the Savings & Loan Crisis because he was the President's son. Her daughter Doro divorced at the beginning of the Administration and moved to be near her parents, in Washington; towards the end of their term, she remarried at Camp David, to Robert Koch, former aide to House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt. In the closing days of the President's failed re-election campaign, Barbara Bush's mother-in-law Dorothy Bush died at her Florida home.

Post-Presidential Life:
Although she took her husband's loss of the White House in 1992 as a personal blow, Barbara Bush immediately involved herself in a new life of public service activity, helping to plan her husband's presidential library and staying in close touch with her large family. Today, she continues her service as AmeriCares ambassador-at-large; Mayo Clinic Foundation board member; and supporter of organizations including the Leukemia Society of America, the Ronald McDonald House, and the Boys & Girls Club of America. Through her foundation for family literacy, she has sought to help establish and fund family literacy programs. She serves as honorary chair of the Foundation and hosts its annual fundraiser, "A Celebration of Reading," and regularly donates a portion of her proceeds to the foundation's causes. She maintains a public schedule designed to emphasize reading as a part of daily family life and visits literacy programs across the country -- in schools, housing projects, organizations and businesses.

Among her greatest points of pride have been the elections of her son George W. Bush as President of the United States in 2000 and 2004. One of the current President's twin daughters is named after her and the former First Lady is a frequent overnight guest of her son's at the White House. Barbara Bush also addressed both the 2000 and the 2004 Republican National Conventions that nominated her son and actively campaigned for him. As the only other woman besides Abigail Adams to be both the wife and mother of U.S. Presidents, Barbara Bush did not hesitate to defend the record of her son as chief executive. Sometimes her remarks generated controversy. On March 18, 2003, in response to a question about the deaths of American serviceman in the Iraqi War declared by President George W. Bush, Barbara Bush stated on ABC's Good Morning America, "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" Supporters said that she was dismissing speculation of deaths. In the spring of 2004, she joined the President in national appearances before senior citizen groups to promote his vision of Social Security reform. In 2000, Barbara Bush predicted that her successor Hillary Clinton would not be elected in her race for the U.S. Senate that year. She predicted to television interviewer Larry King in March of 2005 that Hillary Clinton, by then a current Senator, "will be the Democratic candidate for president in 2008," but would lose the national election.

Several schools have been named for her:
Barbara Bush Middle School in San Antonio, Texas,
Barbara Bush Middle School in Irving, Texas,
Barbara Bush Elementary School in the Houston Independent School District,
Barbara Bush Elementary School in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie, Texas,
Barbara Bush Elementary School in Mesa, Arizona.
The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center is also named for her, located in Portland, Maine.

Barbara Bush serves on the boards of AmeriCares and the Mayo Clinic, and heads her Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She has authored four books. They include C. Fred's Story (1987) and Millie's Book (1990), stories about two of her beloved dogs, the profits from which benefited literacy, and her autobiographies, Barbara Bush: A Memoir (1994) and Reflections (2004). Barbara Bush lives with her husband in Houston, Texas, and at their estate in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Bron: http://www.firstladies.org/biographies