HAMMIN' IT UP WITH BLOG HOG HAMILTON

Hey, small fries, we finally get to the “meat and potatoes” of the blog today!  Or should I say quail?  Yeah, he's pretty cute, but I was talking about Dan Quayle.

Dan Quayle was the Vice-President of the United States, serving with George H. W. Bush (1989-1993).  Quayle was widely ridiculed in the media and by the general public for making either confusing or self-contradictory statements (hmmm, sound familiar?) 

A good example would be after Bush announced the Space Exploration Initiative, which included a manned landing on Mars.  When Quayle was asked his thoughts on sending humans to Mars, he answered, "Mars is essentially in the same orbit as Earth....Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important.  We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water.  If there is water, that means there is oxygen.  If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

His most famous blunder is on June 15, 1992, when he was a guest at a staged spelling bee at Munoz Rivera School in Trenton, New Jersey (when he was campaigning against Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee Senator Al Gore).  He was given flash cards with simple words that he was to ask students to spell on the blackboard.  One of the flash cards had the word "potatoe" on it.  When William Figueroa, a 12-year-old student in the sixth grade, was asked to spell the word, he spelled it correctly.  VP Quayle quietly said to him, "You’re close, but you left a little something off - the "e" on the end."  The student knew it was not correct, but added it anyway to be polite.  Everyone applauded, and the misspelling wasn’t mentioned until the end of the press conference afterward, when one reporter asked Quayle, "How do you spell potato?"  It wasn't until that moment that Quayle realized anything was wrong.  Of course, the media went crazy, claiming that, "Dan Quayle can't spell potato!"  

The student was invited to be on the David Letterman show, where he told the host, "I know he’s not an idiot, but he needs to study more.  Do you have to go to college to be Vice-President?"  The potato incident was then used by the Democrats backing Clinton and Gore to ridicule the VP again.  Figueroa was even flown in to deliver the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democratic National Convention that summer. 

Remember, that's Quayle (with an "e" on the end)! 

How about one more serving of potato humor?

Q: Why did the potato cross the road?
A: He saw a fork up ahead!

Q: How do you describe an angry potato?
A: Boiling mad!

Q: Why didn't the mother potato want her daughter to marry the famous newscaster?
A: Because he was a commontater!

Q: Why wouldn't the reporter leave the mashed potatoes alone?
A: He desperately wanted a scoop!

Q: What do you say to an angry 300-pound baked potato?
A: Anything, just butter him up!

Q: What does a British potato say when it thinks something is wonderful?
A: It's smashing!

Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance) - I can do the "mashed potato."