Defending Jackie
Nate told me, she started to read,
This entry was posted in Beauty, Books, Culture, Fashion, grace, History, humanity, inspiration, New York City, Politics, readng, words and tagged Jacqueline Kennedy, reading the classics, Teaching American History, The Kennedy Years, wrong impressions. Bookmark the permalink.
Perfect handling of a potentially very uncomfortable situation!! ☺️
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Dear Big Fat Can of Worms…truth be told, I’m such a Jackie-ite, I wanted to smack her…BUT…then there would be no potential for light in such a dark point of view. It just goes to show, how influenced we are by what others say. Her mom. See, she needs a good smack. 🙂
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Lol. I am not American and have no particular opinion of Ms Kennedy. I tried watching a recent movie about her on Netflix. The trauma of sitting beside your husband when he is assassinated was well captured. But I found Natalie Portman difficult to read in the role and the cinematography and editing a bit claustrophobic. I didn’t get far. But, to be fair, I haven’t a good record with movies this year.
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I’m not a fan of reenactments. That movie did very well, so it makes you wonder why its captive audience couldn’t just read abut her. You could have popcorn alongside a book, right Mr. Worms?
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Maybe after reading your book she’ll straighten her mother out. Those opinions may have started with a grandparent and were passed down like bad folklore. You had a perfect solution. Are you sure you weren’t a professor or a guru in a previous life?
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Whenever something is taken out of context, it will undoubtedly be misunderstood. He was an ugly Greek guy with money, and she was raised with an opulent mentality, thanks to her mother who nailed it into both her daughters, money mattered more than love. It was also, during a time when she was scared. After Bobby was assassinated, she said, if they’re killing Kennedys, my kids are first on the list, hence, ugly Greek guy with enough money to protect them. I could go on and on, as you know. In any event, I hope she liked the book. 🙂
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Wow! What an encounter! You aced that one, as you usually do with uncomfortable people.
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She was just a kid. Now, if it was a contemporary, I might be writing this from jail.
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You live dangerously!
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Ya think? Okay, I’m gonna shove a frying pan in my bag, just in case. 🙂
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Maybe you’d better make it two for equal weight to carry.
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My mother on occasion, would chase my father with a frying pan, liquor induced. The visual has never left me, hence, where, I’m sure the reference came from. To quote Nora Ephron’s mother…everything’s copy. 🙂
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Oh! Your frying pan was not imaginary! It was real! Just wondering — do you have a frying pan???
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I answered this Anne. But it didn’t take. Yes, I have a frying pan I’ve never chased nor hit anyone with. It’s strictly for frying I’m happy to say.
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I’m sorry the first reply didn’t take. Thank you for writing again.
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I love writing to you. I got to do it twice. 🙂
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A very interesting encounter … and you handled it with grace and dignity. Well played.
A present for you … my new blog. Hope you come on over. https://beachwalkreflections.wordpress.com/
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I love the term well-played. Who sired it, you or Marco?
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We probably both use it
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It’s got a sassy sound to it. Very Damon Runyon.
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I wonder how Lauren Bacall would make it sound.
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Hot and sultry, no doubt.
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Oh yes.
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So you’re back. I just saw the part of this. Congrats.
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Hope you come over to walk along.
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Of course I will. Just looked. Launch, Oct. 20th. 🙂
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🙂 … Thanks … Hope you follow
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It’s a long story of why I don’t technically follow anyone…but I’ll come by on my own.
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Got it … 😊
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PS … Current posting schedule Tuesdays and Saturdays @ 1 AM
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OK.
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The funny thing is she knew where Jackie lived and took the time to go there. I think you fed a new fan with the best possible food.
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It may have been like visiting a crime scene for her, but her mother might have included a few other facts about the former First Lady, you know John. Nothing is ever black or white…as we know, there’s a whole palette in-between.
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Yup on the palette and I’ll bet you that girl shows up there again hoping to see you to say thank you. 😁
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You never know. New York City is more intimate than you would guess. The book I gave her, has lovely photos along with prose. Hope she hides from her mother who just might shred it. Look at me John, now I’m writing a screenplay. 🙂
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I know and it is a good one too.
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Yes it is. She photographed so beautifully, at all ages too. Just not at the very end. I’d see her with her fella, walking slowly in the Park. He was so kind to her. Kindness is the greatest gift one can give to another. Just ask Lucy and Twiggy…:)
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They agree with you. 😁
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WOOF!!!
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One woof and one arf. 😊
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Sounds like my old man. Only difference is, this young woman stands a very good chance of being enlightened, about a woman and the time she lived inside of. I never understood hating what you don’t relate to, what you don’t understand. And people who SHOULD know better, unfortunately their opinions hold weight for the young and uninformed.
Beautiful save there, SB. You can add ‘Mobile Librarian’ to your infinite skill set.
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That’s a lovely name…Mobile Librarian. I’ll take it. I’d like to remind the world, Mrs. Kennedy was only 34 years-old in that fatal limousine, on November 22nd, 1963. 34. Yup. For that alone, she gets a pass.
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That would indeed grant you a pass.
Interestingly, Jackie almost married at twenty two but thought better of it. The tired opinion that she married Kennedy to grab the society pages is nonsense, seeing as how she COULD have been doing just that before ever making the acquaintance of John. She was engaged to a Wall Street banker, but she had misgivings and broke it off. She would have scored a beautiful crib on Oyster Bay and hosted extravagant parties every weekend, but nope.
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Janet, her mercenary mom, was all about money. Jackie, self-possessed as a young girl, not to mention a Daddy’s girl, knew her own mind. Her father was quite the rogue so she assumed, that’s the way all men were and though she couldn’t have liked JFK’s incessant wanderings, she accepted them as a matter of course. Couldn’t have been easy for her. So much to tell, so much to know. I remember her fondly, no matter what.
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This is the thing that amazes me about today’s America. (Hell, it’s not just today, but it just seems so much worse today then it has ever been.) But who teaches their child to hate a woman that died seven years before that child was born? And if she taught her daughter to hate Jackie, imagine what she has done with more modern public figures. It boggles my mind. It really does.
But when you have people thinking these things and teaching them to their children, how can the divide ever narrow instead of continuing to yawn ever wider. I’m basically an agnostic when it comes to Jackie. She lived through one of the worst tragedies in the history of our country with grace and dignity. I’ll give her a whole lot of leeway because of that, and I don’t even think she needs any leeway. She lived the rest of her life the best way she knew how and the odd thing is that I don’t remember her hurting anybody or taking advantage of anybody. So, what’s the problem.
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I so loved this Midget. Really!!! From…imagine what she has done with more public figures, to yawn ever wider, to your metaphorical use of the word agnostic, are you a writer by any chance? 🙂
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Nah. But I know you are, so I gotta keep upping my game. 😉
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You write beautifully Mark. I see it in everything you pen, even a pithy comment. 🙂
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What a golden opportunity to broaden a young person’s horizons… one who has already been limited by her close-minded parent(s). I love that she waited for you to return and took the book offered. Something tells me she won’t be taking things at face value anymore (or rather, through a single person’s eyes).
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I was impressed too, actually. I guess it was the way I treated her, like an equal, not talking down to her in any way. There’s so much more to Jackie Kennedy Onassis than her second marriage, it’s a pity to not be exposed to it. How bout her reinvention of The White House that was more The Flop House when the Eisenhowers were there along with their many predecessors. Or her exemplar behavior at her husband’s funeral. In any event, just another tale in the Naked City.
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I think she truly did appreciate the way you spoke to her. Too many adults talk down to teens, dismissing them. And yes, there is so much more and now she will be able to make her own judgment after reading the book.
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I did like when she said, she was a big reader. You don’t hear that too often by someone her age.
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It does seem to be a rarer and rarer thing with today’s youth… Sad, really.
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All on their phones. It’s gone viral I’m afraid.
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Truly. I was (am) a mean mom… they got cell phones when they could get one themselves!
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Excellent. I like that. !!!
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😎
~Hal Rubenstein from my iPhone
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Hi Hal. 🙂
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Education is better than ill advised assumptions. Your encounter with the young lady may allow her to see another view and broaden her horizons. Alternatively she may remain somewhat close minded to the matter, but at least she will be better able to use her opinion.
By the way I think the dates that Mrs K lived there may be 1964 – 1994 otherwise she would have been 930 and that’s quite an age. Or have I misread the blog?
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I’m laughing at my fax pas, now fixed. 1064 was my old address, so that’s where I’m thinking, that OOPS came from. It’s actually the second one I’ve made concerning the Kennedys. I did a podcast called, Letz Get Loud, about Jackie and got the date of the assassination wrong. Said it was the 23rd, not the 22nd. Careless errors on my part. I appreciate you pointing it out, more than the other person who Tweeted. See, I’d rather be happy than necessarily, be right. Thanks.
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That’s ok. I like to see and read about things that I know “of” but not much background about, to be honest. 930 years old though, that would take some doing
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I like writing about history, even wrapped in a passing tale.
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Now that is a great way to react to someone with differing views. I love this piece. Thanks for being so generous and being such an inspiration.
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You’re sweet David. Thanks.
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Wow! I’m so impressed by how you handled that. You done good, really good.😊
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I just wrote you this long reply that disappeared. WordPress will always be a mystery to me. I more or less said, a quick choice was made to influence rather than censor. No easy feat, since my indignant fuse was lit but, it did appear to have a better finish. Who knows though, she may have tossed that book in the trash. We’ll never know. Thanks for writing. It’s always appreciated.
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My lit fuses always lead to detonation, so you definitely deserve kudos.
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That made me laugh. I saw you dressed like a rocket.
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That wouldn’t be an inaccurate image!
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I purr at your quirky sense of humor mirroring mine. Where would we be without it. In a windowless room, without our belts, that’s where. sigh
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Perfect handling! I don’t think I can picture anyone else but you doing that.
Shine that bright light of yours Susannah!
Blessings! ♥♥
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Well Star, I do seem to have the most unusual events occur in my daily travels. They indeed make me scratch my head. Thanks. Always a pleasure hearing from you. Susannah
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You are aware, in the moment and sensitive to people’s energy so you see things that us regular folks miss. I aim for that! Honestly.
I am always here, but don’t always have a chance to comment.
I wouldn’t want to miss some historical tidbit, a glimpse of New York City, or your heart in action.
You are loved! ♥♥
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Boy, did I need that. I’m incredibly humbled. Really. Thank you.
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