From last Sunday's Booknotes, I bring you the story of James K. Polk and a complete lack of regard for my readers' lunches.

My good friend and visionary engine of this site, said in a recent newsletter regarding Martin Luther King, Jr.:
It's difficult to picture great leaders of the past interacting with this very intrusive and dehumanizing 21st century mass culture.

To this, I have a one-word response: "Gorget."

5. (Surg.) (a) A cutting instrument used in lithotomy. (b) A grooved instrunent used in performing various operations; -- called also blunt gorget. --Dunglison.

I similarly find it difficult to picture great leaders of the past interacting with this very intrusive and dehumanizing 19th century tool of medicine. So I hope you'll forgive me for working through this difficulty by sharing some cringe-ific history about James K. Polk.

A sickly boy, who at seventeen had life-threatening surgery that probably left him sterile...

You're wondering why it left him sterile, aren't you, reader? It is as bad as you can imagine. You see pictured in at right the emminent physician Dr. Ephraim McDowell who weilded the gorget and now graces Statuary Hall in the Capitol.

In other unsightly political events, did anyone else watch the C-SPAN/WHO coverage of the Iowa caucus in Dubuque? While I don't understand the process completely, I got the distinct impression that the chair of this particular caucus read his secret code over national television. I believe this is the video and that he phones in the results, probably two to two and a half hours into it.

posted by Biggie at 2:12 PM

YEEEAAAHHH!!! By way of Micky Kaus, some of the best sampling this side of Paul's (not Begala's) Boutique. Here and here. I would add a photo here, but the Dean campaign doesn't seem to have any photos up of their candidate shrieking like a lunatic.

Plus, I'd like to give a shout out to LaTeX and NASA. If they can't get a man on Mars, then at least they're helping me by this.
posted by Tom at 5:07 PM