Short story about my afternoon w/ SP
Haiku Originations
Sarah Palin Haikus
Censorship?
As the Sarah Palin Haiku Collection continues to proliferate, I’ve noticed a serendipitous chronology forming. The shock stage: exploitive sound-bytish slams of WTF. Then action –my friend Sarah Sims calling for donations to
Planned Parenthood in Palin’s name and now, finally, the more reflexive, meta-historical phase, ushered in my Uncle Don, the autodidactic history buff.
Uncle Don’s recent contribution was so outta my league that I had to request contextual clarification. I am consequently providing the commentary as an autonomous blog post. If my Wordpress skills prove technically ept enough, I might even fig out a way to link this to that. In the case that the in wins over the ept—here’s the haiku again:
tipped canoe got tiled
old Zachary was filled more
and what about abe?
Okay. So, this is the explanation I asked Don to send:
Dear Susanna,
The first 3 presidents to die in office were William Henry Harrison (”Tippecanoe”), Zachary Taylor, and Abraham Lincoln.
“Tippecanoe” gained his sobriquet fighting the great Indian Chief Tecumseh, and the generals famous campaign slogan was “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” -
Tyler being his VP candidate, and apparently one of our worst subsequent Presidents.
Harrison caught cold at his inauguration, refusing to wear a
coat in a cold rain, and died a month later.
Zachary Tyler, whom I admire, was I think a model for U. S. Grant, who
served under him in the Mexican War. He died after about 16 months in
office, purportedly after eating a bowl of cherries with milk. There
is unconfirmed speculation that he was poisoned. His VP, Fillmore, was
again a president of very low caliber.
Abe (Lincoln) is the great, enigmatic icon of American ideals. His VP,
Andrew Johnson, is difficult to assess due to the turbulence of the times.
He was nearly impeached and kept his office by only a margin of 1 vote.
Regards, your uncle Don



