From Mencken’s essay: The Imperial Purple.
Many of these gentlemen pop in not because they have anything to say, but because they want to prove to their employees or customers that they can do it. How long they stay is only partly determined by the President himself. Dr Coolidge used to get rid of them by falling asleep in their faces, but that device is impossible to presidents with a more active interest in the world. It would not do to have the secret service heave them out…because many of them have wicked tongues. On two occasions within present history, Presidents who were irritable with such bores were reported in Washington to be patronising the jug, and it took a lot of fine work to put down the scandal.
Better not to meet them then. I did like this though:
Brown's efforts to secure a prestigious primetime slot for his keynote speech at the general assembly in New York were also thwarted when the Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi, delivered a 100-minute speech to the UN, massively running over Brown's 15 minute slot.
That’s very funny.
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