Althouse: "This is the night I should go to the theater."

August 23, 2026

"This is the night I should go to the theater."

Chris — my son, the reader of presidential biographies — texts me another passage from "President Kennedy: Profile of Power" (commission earned).

9 comments:

John henry said...: Back in the 90s I got on a Kennedy kick. I read several bios including Nigel Hamilton's Reckless Youth, Collier and Horowitz book on the Kennedy family and this one by Reeves. I remember them all as interesting and Reeves being pretty good especially.

What a bunch of useless Shites.

PJ Kennedy was a very successful bartender and liquor wholesaler (Founded Somerset Liquors) and Joseph P was even more successful as an entrepreneur and financier. He skirted close to the law but probably stayed mostly within it.

But oh those kids. Not a fanof any of them.

John Henry

John Henry; 8/23/26, 10:24 AM
Lazarus said...: JFK has become a bore. But what hasn't?; 8/23/26, 10:33 AM
Gusty Winds said...: The Cuban Missel Crisis was JFK's greatest moment. He resisted his Joint Chiefs, and averted nuclear disaster. I think he gambled on the belief the Soviets wanted to live too.; 8/23/26, 10:40 AM
lonejustice said...: John F. Kennedy is the only good Democratic Party President I have know in my lifetime, and I was in the 5th Grade when he was assassinated.; 8/23/26, 10:50 AM
kiwinews said...: Theater? He had an appointment in Samarra, poor man.; 8/23/26, 11:51 AM
Wilbur said...: I was in 4th grade in November, 1963. Anyone alive and sentinent then will remember the Friday before Thanksgiving. The assassination was a world rocker, leaving us wondering what else in the world might come unmoored.
When it was announced over the PA at our parochial school, I remember our teacher, a Irish Catholic lay woman from Philadelphia just out of college, excused herself from the classroom and left us 40 kids alone for a good 30 minutes. When she returned, it was clear she had been weeping. Notably, no one got up from their desk or even joked around much. Very unusual behavior indeed.; 8/23/26, 1:47 PM
Known Unknown said...: Will there ever be a companion volume "Profiles in Horniness?"; 8/23/26, 1:56 PM
Chuck Roadkill said...: As I have pointed out to my liberal buddies after one of the recent “presidential ratings” polls which placed JFK in the top 5 or 10 of all American presidents:

Lying about the alleged ‘missile gap,’ his (father’s) presidential election shenanigans in Illinois, the Bay of Pigs disaster, hiding his significant health problems from the public, his womanizing/philandering, siccing his brother (relevant issue with nepotism) Attorney General on MLK, no significant legislation (including no civil rights legislation), getting America involved in Vietnam and the assassination of Diem, and of course the Cuban missile crisis which almost got us into WWIII.

Why this guy if even considered in the top half of American Presidents belies his well documented record of failure. Why his is deified as a great president is beyond me.; 8/23/26, 6:41 PM
Ralph L said...: I've probably told this story here before, but on Oct 22, 1963, my parents heard JFK speak to the centennial convocation of the National Academy of Sciences at DAR Constitution Hall next to the WH. Dad was working for the Office of Naval Research at the time, managing deep submersible ALVIN's funding. Mom told him that night, "It would be so easy for someone to shoot him."; 8/23/26, 7:03 PM