March 20, 2019

Of spoons and forks and Birch Bayh and Amy Klobuchar.

From Ryan Lizzo's interview with Democratic presidential candidate Peter Buttigieg (in Esquire):
By the way we just got the word that senator Birch Bayh passed away. Did he have any impact on you growing up as a fellow Hoosier?

He was already out of office by the time I came of age but we’d see him campaigning for other people around Indiana. He was famous for carrying a spoon in his suit pocket to be ready for stops at Dairy Queen. He had that kind of nice retail touch. But also —

If only Amy Klobuchar had adopted a version of that.

Eeeeeeewww, uh, yeah.

I will note the non-response to that.

21 comments:

gspencer said...

"If only Amy Klobuchar had adopted a version of that."

But she did. A comb was always in her purse. Though eating ice cream with a comb could be tough. If too cold, a comb couldn't cut it into bit-sized pieces; if too soft, the ice cream would drip through the tines.

John henry said...

Doesn't Dairy Queen give out spoons when you buy an icecream cup?

Been a while since I've bought anything but a milk shake and I think, but now am not sure, that they always gave me a long spoon as well as a straw.

Why would Bayh need to carry a spoon?

John Henry

cubanbob said...

As John Henry said who carries a spoon to a Dairy Queen? With a name like Buttegieg,no matter how its pronounced, the guy ( fortunately) has no chance. Too mockable. Another half out of the closet Socialist. Started to read the article and from the beginning when Buttegieg stated he believes that capitalism requires a strong legal system I didn't need to go any further to know he is full of crap. The most elemental understanding of free markets necessitates the understanding that you can't have a free market economy without a robust legal system to enforce contractual obligations and preserve property rights.

narciso said...

She could have bought a bag of chips, reason why they resented Quayle he took down birch bayh.

Darrell said...

Restaurants should provide Amy Klobuchar with a variety of combs, rather than forks and spoons.

Ann Althouse said...

"Doesn't Dairy Queen give out spoons when you buy an icecream cup? Been a while since I've bought anything but a milk shake and I think, but now am not sure, that they always gave me a long spoon as well as a straw."

In the old days, there were no plastic spoons at ice cream places. You got a short, flat wooden thing that had something of a 2D spoon shape. I haven't thought about those things in many years!

traditionalguy said...

On our diet, the wife and I like to snack off a large jar of peanut butter in the TV room. hen we forget the spoon we are in the quandry: do we to go to the kitchen to get a spoon or do we use the bic pen on the table. The pen becomes a peanut butter lollypop.

Please don't tell anyone.

Lucien said...

It's nice to be prepared. I keep telling myself I should carry a nice pin-on or clip-on name tag in my suit pocket, so I don't get stuck using one of those crummy adhesive name tags -- but then I forget.

William said...

He comes off far better in live interviews than on the printed page. In interviews you notice his calm demeanor, symmetrical features, and pleasant manners. On the printed page, you notice how stupid his ideas are.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I saw an interview where he talked about expanding the Supreme Court in a non-partisan way of course. He sounda all reasonable but make no mistake he is just one of the leaders in the gay division of the liberal fascist mafia.

rehajm said...

I reckon Romney would carry a spork.

Bay Area Guy said...

Hard-hitting political journalism.........

And one wonders why we mock them and don't take them seriously.

Darkisland said...

I do carry a plastic bowl and spoon when I travel because I like to keep a box of cereal and some milk in my hotel room for when I wake up with my stomach growling and can't go back to sleep.

Don't like paper bowls or plastic spoons for this.

I haven't seen those flat wooden spoons in a long time. I do see wooden "forks" or fork analogues, from time to time.

John Henry

Ralph L said...

I thought "Eeeeeeewww, uh, yeah" was a good response.

You got a short, flat wooden thing that had something of a 2D spoon shape.

In my generation, it was stuck on the lids on the too-small, factory-made ice cream cups at school and 7/11. Wooden popsicle sticks. What is it about frozen treats and wood?

Bayh was probably thwarted and publicly embarrassed once by a plastic wrapper or broken spoon. Also, some have sharp edges, as do airline cups, which I find irritating even with Chapstick. Had several long flights ruined.

Arby's makes you ask for a spoon for their too-thick-to suck milkshakes. Was it engineered to be a longevity test?

Robert Cook said...

We moved from Indiana to Florida in October 1963, when I was eight years old. I can remember my grandmother talking about Birch Bayh at the time.

Rick.T. said...

Goodness. Had no idea that he was still alive. Among my first political memories are Birch Bayh and Vance Hartke as our Indiana Senators, preceded only by my mother voting for Kennedy and my father for Nixon. I thought Indiana was a fairly reliable blue state until Reagan because of all the hillbilly families from KY, TN, and AR (mine) moving north but a review of governors and Senators shows otherwise. The joke was always that the Mason Dixon line followed the Ohio River except for Indiana when it went north almost to Michigan.

We had a DQ sometime in the mid-Sixties. Never carried a spoon. We went for the dip-top cones. We patronized it regularly until a frozen custard place opened across town, then not so much.

daskol said...

Even thinking about the feel of those wood spoons on my tongue, which I recall not from Dairy Queen but from freezer case single serve ice cream, gives me the shivers. The worst--turned me off ice cream for a while. I notice now Haagen Dazs single serves come with plastic instead, much nicer.

Ralph L said...

Flat plastic couldn't hold onto the ice cream.

Be said...

Runcible Spoon is Edward Lear-Speak for Spork. Those flat paddles are still given with what we call here 'Hoodsies,' or Hood Ice Cream cups.

gilbar said...

A&E (des moines dairy) STILL sells frozen malted milk cups with the cool wooden spoons. Some of us LOVE them

gadfly said...

Ryan Lizzo's interview with Mayor Pete drives home the sad, sad, lock-step extremists driving the Democratic party. Global Warming is happening and it is caused by man - all the scientists say so - so we will not hear from the deniers.

The only answer to health care is government-run, taxpayer-financed, equal benefits for all and even more for those with existing medical conditions and Obamacare proved it - how soon they forgot that nobody of average means could afford O'Care's high-premiums and monstrous deductions, since only lower income folks had premiums forgiven and the penalty for opting out was atrocious. Nobody asks how the huge costs of Medicare for Everyone will be covered, since present Medicare payroll taxes do not come close to even covering our over 65 population. The present Medicare strategy of lowering provider payments has reached its lowest point, perhaps paying 10% of claims. Providers presently make up the difference through billing increases from non-medicare recipients - but what happens when everyone receives Medicare - even if they are not paying Medicare taxes? Add to that the demand that Congress should lower drug charges.

Which takes us to Socialism which really isn't like that awful Communism that made us old folks defend Capitalism which is the only successful economic theory that made all of us richer - unless handouts is the only income that some will attempt. Perhaps we should provide free one-way air travel to Venezuela? Oh, and who can forget black reparations, native American reparations, free college tuitions (perhaps through sports scholarships for every student?), payments for not working, payments for time off and on and on.

The Trump administration is spending like there is no tomorrow, but our liberal Dems are going to make us all paupers. Perhaps a moderate centrist like Amy Klobuchar or Beto in his Libertarian mode should get the vote that I cannot give to the Crazy Criminal, DJT.