Media-Whore D'Oeuvres

"In foreign affairs, the central challenge now facing President Barack Obama is how to regain some of the ground lost in recent years in shaping U.S. national security policy. Historically and politically, in America's system of separation of powers, it is the president who has the greatest leeway for decisive action in foreign affairs. He is viewed by the country as responsible for Americans' safety in an increasingly turbulent world. He is seen as the ultimate definer of the goals that the United States should pursue through its diplomacy, economic leverage, and, if need be, military compulsion. And the world at large sees him -- for better or for worse -- as the authentic voice of America. To be sure, he is not a dictator. Congress has a voice. So does the public. And so do vested interests and foreign-policy lobbies. The congressional role in declaring war is especially important not when the United States is the victim of an attack, but when the United States is planning to wage war abroad. Because America is a democracy, public support for presidential foreign-policy decisions is essential. But no one in the government or outside it can match the president's authoritative voice when he speaks and then decisively acts for America. This is true even in the face of determined opposition. Even when some lobbies succeed in gaining congressional support for their particular foreign clients in defiance of the president, for instance, many congressional signatories still quietly convey to the White House their readiness to support the president if he stands firm for 'the national interest.' And a president who is willing to do so publicly, while skillfully cultivating friends and allies on Capitol Hill, can then establish such intimidating credibility that it is politically unwise to confront him. This is exactly what Obama needs to do now." (Zbig/Foreign Policy)

"Princess Michael of Kent — a cousin by marriage of the Queen of England, better known as Princess Pushy — was overheard dishing on expecting relatives Prince William and Kate Middleton at a Shafik Gabr Foundation event at the Metropolitan Museum’s Temple of Dendur Monday night. After 'waltzing' into the museum in a 'long, red train-like coat that swept the floor,' and with Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia and jeweler Kenneth Jay Lane on each arm, the princess was overheard telling guests the royal family is 'thrilled' over the news of a new heir. And, that male or female, the offspring will sit on the throne after William." (PageSix)

"Princess Olga, my maternal grandmother, and I shared a trait in common. We loved miniature things. She had a collection of tiny treasures and we would spend hours at a time handling, ever so carefully, the wee objects and admiring them, marveling at their tininess. There were boxes of gold studded with gems and inside might recline a perfectly made doll with tailored clothes. Or little leather bound books with gold page edges, and the finest delicate German porcelain cups and saucers, far too pretty to ever consider using. Everything entirely useless, coddling a fetish of follies. Closing the loop I am now living in a dollhouse. Miniaturism in vivo. I am enchanted. Even some of the Manuels commented on the tightness of my new quarters. But I know my grandmother would have been enchanted too." (Christina Oxenberg)

"'Peanuts' creator Charles Schulz referenced an extramarital affair he had in the 1970s in his own Charlie Brown comic strips. Schulz, then 48 and married to Joyce Halverson, carried on the affair with Tracey Claudius, then 25. Schulz sent her love letters and cartoons of his famed characters, and Sotheby’s is auctioning a collection of those love notes on Dec. 14. In two letters from 1970, Schulz says his wife had discovered his calls to Claudius, reports AP. Soon after he drew a strip where Charlie Brown warns Snoopy he’s not allowed to go out 'to see that girl beagle,' and 'to start behaving himself.' When Snoopy picks up the telephone, Charlie Brown yells, 'And stop making those longdistance phone calls.'" (PageSix)