This must be why I "remember" why Michael Draper, my step-brother, was born on August 13th. It is because he was a U.S. Navy officer that was killed on 2/14/1986 when we were shot down by anti-aircraft fire. I can't remember his real name yet, though. In my artificial and symbolic memory, he was killed when he wrecked his pickup on 11/25/1986, but I think I encoded that detail to reflect when my family had a funeral service for me. I was shot down on 2/14/1986 and then the prison I was being held at was bombed to give me a chance to escape, which I did, but no one knew for certain I had survived until I made it back to the U.S. Navy on 5/13/1987.
Hardball Hosts Reagan Family Reunion
It was a rare public Reagan family reunion of sorts on Thursday’s edition of Hardball. Nancy joined son Ron to help Chris report on the release of the new book “The Reagan Diaries." (video) Joining them was presidential historian and Tulane University professor Douglas Brinkley who painstakingly edited the book over the last 3 years. Mrs. Reagan, who is doing very limited publicity for this book, agreed to join the conversation today when she heard Chris was dedicating time to it on Hardball. She told Chris how important it was to publish these diary entries and that the President never wrote them with the idea that they’d be published. She had forgotten how much he wrote about dealing with personal situations with his family in the diaries, including this excerpt about his son Ron:
Saturday, May 15 (1982)
Long call to Ron. He wants to Sign off Secret Svc. for a month. S.S. knows he’s a real target—lives in a N.Y.C. area where the Puerto Rican terrorist group is active. In fact he’s on a hit list. He thinks we’re interfering with his privacy. I can’t make him see that I can’t be put in a position of one day facing a ransom demand. I’d have to refuse for reasons for the Nation’s welfare.
Ron told Chris Matthews it is more than a little strange for him to read about family arguments 25 years after they happened. Mrs. Reagan was quick to point out that the president did write many good things about Ron in his diary, including how much he enjoyed watching him perform with the Joffrey Ballet in the 1980’s. Mrs. Reagan also responded to a question from Chris on how the President was embarrassed by some of the content in movies he screened at the White House. Here’s an entry from 1982.
Friday, August 13
We had a movie, “Officer and a Gentleman.” Good story, spoiled by nudity, language & sex.
the royals and the press
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May 1960 Princess Margaret marries photographer Anthony Armstrong Jones. She is the first of the royals to be thought of as cool, glamorous, and soon becomes the paparazzi's target.
1962 BBC launches "That Was the Week that Was." The popular weekly program starts satirizing the Royal Family.
1964 Ray Bellisario is the first British paparazzo, dubbed "the peeping Tom" by the press. He sells photos of Princess Margaret in a swimsuit to the Sunday Express which publishes them. The Palace instructs editors not to buy Bellisario's pictures. The editors oblige.
