Re: Liars, damned liars, and statisticians.

Ron Resnick (rresnick@dialogosweb.com)
Tue, 18 Aug 1998 23:04:51 -0400


Tim Byars wrote:

> Who is Al Haig?

Tim,

I'm not sure if you were asking that sarcastically, or you
really didn't know, and wanted someone to tell you.

Assuming that (possibly) the latter, the answer is:

Alexander Haig was Secretary of State during the first term of the
Reagan administratation. When Reagan was shot (1983? around then),
for a brief time - about 10 minutes - there were reports that
the President had died. I remember Dan Rather on TV reporting
that Reagan was dead. During those minutes, Al Haig got
in front of a TV camera and announced "I'm in charge here".
For years afterwards he took a lot of ribbing/teasing/criticism
for this rather hasty & premature announcement.

Incidentally, Haig was also an official - forget which post-
during the Nixon administration, though he managed to stay
clear of any Watergate stains.

Ron "knows a lot about US history and public figures because
that stuff gets rammed down our throats in Canada & round the world
whether we like it or not" Resnick

(Still in Washington. Real drag. Boring conference.
There was a time, not that long ago, where I used to think
these things were fascinating. Now, the only thing remotely
interesting is James Gosling's keynote on Java. The rest
is pretty tedious.
Worst of all - no
Targets or Walmarts in downtown DC, and I don't have a rental
car this time to go shopping for kiddie stuff! I took the metro
to a shopping mall, but I guess I'm just not a Nordstrom
kinda guy :-).