It might be a little odd to thank someone for being controversial. I mean — if Nixon had turned out to be a really great President, I might be thanking him anyway, but obviously for different reasons. And while I’m sure that there are critics out there that might boo and hiss over this tiny observation… Pulling out the facts — laying blame and spitting on the ground over how much better the world might be had he not led this country into the debacles and shame that he reigned supreme over. Lives were at stake. Livelihoods sat in ruin. I know. But whose to rewind and say that we’d be any different today?… And please, DO NOT answer that.

I may be among the few to acknowledge his ill-fated bravado while thanking him for it at the same time.. He stood out and egregiously erred… Big time. And while he could have sat back and faded away as some far-less interesting Presidents do, he saw his moment and went the other way… seizing the corruption like any other weasel would — And for that I am grateful.

Because if Nixon hadn’t been such a bad President, the New York Times wouldn’t have run a story in today’s paper highlighting Duke University’s shame filled embarrassment in coming to terms with the fact that he graduated from Duke Law, and the collective students and professors that have decided to put on a play about him called “Tricky Dick”. They wouldn’t have talked about how they turned down the idea for the Richard M. Nixon library or refused to give him an honorary under-graduate degree… And, more importantly, they wouldn’t have published this picture, where my Grandaddy sits — hat crooked, brilliantly-wise smile — in 1937 — on Nixon’s right.

And, while I let it be known that my Grandfather had NOTHING to do with Nixon post Duke Law other than a friendly acquaintance, this is probably the best little surprise that anyone has thrown at me lately… Because WHO gets to open up the paper in the morning to see a picture of their very much loved and missed Grandfather, completely and totally unexpectedly?!? Especially on a rainy Monday morning, when all signs point to GO BACK TO BED, sprinkled with nice thoughts of DON’T EVEN TRY… While he sits there — right before moving on with his life to be a successful man of the LAW with a gorgeous (AHEM) family that will someday find themselves running around the house in a pajama-filled tizzy because THERE HE IS — Next to someone that went the OTHER WAY, but still somehow managed to get himself published, top left corner, on page A12 of the New York Times on April 4th, 2011…

Because there he sits, in 1937. And that wise-guy attitude… SO obviously passed down to others…

Related articles

• Duke Law Students Give Musical Nod to Nixon (nytimes.com)
• Richard Nixon: The Law School Musical (blogs.wsj.com)