Thursday, June 24, 2004

Amsterdam, Taiwan: Bill Clinton and Rudolf Nuryev

Please, O Lord, Give us this day our Daily Clinton:

"I went to Amsterdam with my artist friend Aimee Gautier. The streets were covered with Christmas lights and lined with charming shops. The famous red-light district featured perfectly legal prostitutes on display in their windows. Aimee jokingly asked if I wanted to go into one of the places, but I declined.

"We toured the main churches, saw the Van Goughs at the Municipal Museum and the Vermeers at the Rijksmuseum. At closing time, we were asked to leave the wonderful old place. I went to the cloakroom to pick up our coats. There was only one other person left in line to pick up his. When he turned around, I found myself facing Rudolf Nuryev. We exchanged a few words and he asked me if I wanted a cup of tea. I knew Aimee would love it, but just outside the front door, a handsome, frowning young man was anxiously pacing, obviously waiting for Nuryev, so I took a pass. Years later, when I was governor, I found myself in the same hotel with Nuryev in Taipei, Taiwan. We finally got our cup of tea late one night after we had fulfilled our respective obligations. Obviously he didn't recall our first meeting."

Bill Clinton, My Life

Well, let me spell it out for you, Bill, as delicately as I can; You can't expect a man to remember each person he ever invited for a, ahem (The Corsair makes gestures out of thin air with his fingers of quotation marks), "cup of tea." Get it?

Oldhag contemplates another Clintonian romantic moment.

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