Quick Rundown

Wasn't yesterday great? Did you watch until your eyeballs tried to crawl away from their sockets in an attempt to find a host who would allow them some blinkage? I did.


Let me just get the negative aspects out there first. Rick Warren--ugh. Hated that he was there. Just an ugly man with offensive views. Michelles's green gloves. Okay, while I actually sort of loved her big olive-colored hands holding that tiny red Lincoln Bible (while itsy-bitsy Jill Biden struggled to keep level that enormous, gold-leafed tome she was given--that thing was the size of a room air-conditioner). Hee! But is that going to be the modus operandi for our new First Lady? To mar her fashion message of gorgeous, striking simplicity with these last minute cave-ins to her jejeune practicality? (We saw it in her Election Night cardigan misstep, remember?)
What else---oh, my god, that poem by Elisabeth Alexander. Incredibly clunky. Had to mute her.



Highlights--in no particular order. Malia Obama taking photos with her little Nikon Cool Pix camera, especially when she handed it to Joe Biden so her could get her a better shot down the Mall. Sasha Obama in her pink and orange coat and scarf nonchalantly giving the Punahou High School Marching Band the surfer shaka shaka sign. Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman's quartet playing that great arrangement of "Simple Gifts". Wheelchair-bound Dick Cheney reminding us all of the villianous Mr. Potter from It's a Wonderful Life. Barack Obama getting a little bit ahead of himself as he took the oath of office--you know he had that thing memorized and was ready to recite it in one quick go. I liked Joseph Lowrey's rhyming and allusive blessing. And of course I think we all really liked George Bush's helicopter disappearing into the noonday sky. Goodbye Cowboy!