Conversation with friends Sunday, Dec. 21.

"Did you see the shoe incident?"- "Only about a hundred times.  I never got tired of it."-

"What I wondered was, where were the security guys?  The ones who will throw themselves in front of a shoe?"- "They were over at the side."- "No, they poured out of a door at the back.  It was all over by then."- "Wasn't Bush smiling the whole time?  Or was it a grimace?  With him, I can't tell."- "Someone said that this will be the iconic moment" "it won't be the scene on the battleship with "-Mission Accomplished' in the background, but the shoes whizzing through the air that will sum up all eight years."-

"The reporter really flung them.  What's his name, Zeidi?  Flung them hard."- "I could see George counting down, he knew the second shoe was coming.  I realized in that instant that my president could count to two."- "He's a young guy, the reporter.  Probably couldn't take it when Bush started talking about how much the American people had sacrificed, how it cost us a great deal of time and resources.  Must have sounded like he was complaining."- "No, his friends said he'd talked about it before.  What he would do if he ever found himself in a room with George Bush."- "Haven't we all?"- "Actually, I decided a long time ago, being fairly timid, that if I was ever in a room listening to W talk, I could obviously and actively shake my head throughout his speech.  In an audience of heads, he'd have to notice me."- "What's the point?"- "It would rattle him, and it's not a jailable offense."- "If you ever find yourself in a room with W, I suggest you think twice.  He is a mean and dangerous and unforgiving man."- "I disagree.  George Bush's finest moment was ducking those shoes.  Did you see his expression?  It was close to pure joy.  Those moves looked like something you'd see on a football field or a basketball court.  He had a chance to show that he could think on his feet, without anyone telling him what to do.  He was supremely confident, he waved away his bodyguard"- [Interruptions and jeers from the other coffee-drinkers.] "-he stood straight at that podium, fearless and bright-eyed, ready to handle anything they threw at him.  The poor guy has been unable to demonstrate any kind of mastery in any sphere, and finally that journalist gave him the chance to look like a hero.  George Bush is a pathetic figure, but I cheered for him every time I watched him dodge those shoes with such easy grace.  And I watched it, as I said, a hundred times."- "The reporter's a hero to half the world."- "I read that the Iraqi parliament is divided over whether he's a hero or whether he was criminally rude to a visiting head of state."- "But that's the whole point now.  They don't have to be polite to George Bush.  Nobody in the world has to be polite to George Bush."-