:001_huh: I admit, I have no idea how this could possibly happen. I don't really even like the Beatles, but I'm sure there is not a single song I don't know. :lol: Whatever we have to tell ourselves to get through the day. :D

Oh, good grief. For a minute, I thought you said "purple rain"... I was so confused about how Prince (or, you know, that no-sound-associated symbol) got in here... I must be having a "low literacy" day.

I dunno... maybe I just overlaid her voice in my head. She sounded pretty Aretha to me. Rick Warren, on the other hand, looked as if he was coming off a bender, the invocation itself seemed disjointed and the way he said "Malia and Sashaaaaa" seemed, uh, a little creepy. What was that about? Does anyone have a point of reference? He does not strike me as the type who is generally disheveled and seemingly unprepared. :001_huh: Oh, and yes, blech to the reading of the poem. Maybe it was the weather; people seemed to be having difficulty vocalizing all around.

No, I wouldn't guess he would... I was actually just thinking of the infamous presidential "broccoli" diatribe.

As are you. It was Herbert Hoover who was the Quaker who also "affirmed"... and on a law book. I knew there was another. (There are conflicting reports about whether Kennedy's hand was on the Dubay bible or not)

John Quincy Adams used a book of law. Teddy Roosevelt did not use a bible. Jack Kennedy, while a bible was present, is reported to have held his left hand at his side. Linden Johnson was sworn in on a Catholic missal. There was somebody else who did not use a bible...

Pierce "affirmed" the oath because he was Quaker. I will point out that you completely hosed up the quiz here and have made me half crazy with searching. {I hear the evil chuckle}: He was not incorrect. You attributed "sworn" for "taken". It is mean to mess with minds on the edge you know.

Oh, dear. That is unfortunate.

Thank goodness he's not chanting "Broccoli Herbert Walker BUSH!" The poor man might never get over it.

Washington took the oath. On a bible borrowed from a Masonic temple three blocks away (which still keeps the Washington Bible that GWB would have been sworn in on, but it was raining). (Interesting given the Mason thread recently) I'm calling uncle. I see where there have been those who didn't "swear" the oath (rather, "affirmed"), I see where someone other than the Chief Justice administered the oath, but I see nowhere where the oath was omitted altogether.

In Hillary's defense, we were coming off the 80s.

I agree and will point out that it is generally people who do not handle money responsibly that need a loan, just until <fill in the blank>.

I've used this one, or one similar, with good results.

(oops forgot the link, then posted twice)

Not to be odd (oh, yeah, that would be totally out of character for me) or hijack, but the fashion of the day is definitely feeling like a throwback to the Camelot days... maybe this is an indication that we are moving back toward a more civil, respectful, respectable society. (Not that that has anything to do with the change of administration at all, just that it seemed we saw a lot more in the way of details like hats, ties in the crowd today. Of course, even Brittany Spears would be wearing a coat in DC today, so I'm probably just mental and not a little wistful for a new era of civil behaviour. And not a little sick of naked people.)

Oh, no. New lesson comin' on. (I sincerely hope the paper bag I'll be wearing over my head fits over the tinfoil hat.) Worse. I have just been asked to please turn OFF Jimi Hendrix before the 7 year old's ears bleed... but she did observe that he was "tall... and looks like Morgan Freeman" before running away. That would be a nada on Janis, too, but that she has just been mistaken for Susun Weed... What kind of freak show am I running here?!?!

Uh, yup. . The only version I know is the Sex Pistols'.. uh, that's probably not the same, is it?

They do look great in hats. It's funny because my 7 year old and I were watching the 1963 I Have a Dream speech and commenting on the men in hats and ties and how much more formal that era was and didn't everyone - even those more casually dressed - look dignified and proper. Robert Byrd also collapsed during the luncheon. I love the wording from Fox news (not a Fox slam) Seems like the inaugural luncheon is a smackdown or something.

God Save the Queen is the same tune?!?! I had no idea. Imagine the gaff I would create singing along in a British colony! (oh, wait...)

Nah. They just like Cat Stevens. (And Talking Heads, and James Taylor, and The Dead, and, actually, Mahalia Jackson... those poor children, their mother's musical habits are very schizo) They also didn't know from Yo-Yo Ma. :glare: I'll give them Itzhak Perlman; I haven't seen him for years myself. But come on, Yo-Yo MA?? We have the Silk Road cd! He had a CELLO! It's a dead give-away!

Oh, no.

I'll join, too. I think she was a pillbox hat away from having a very Jackie kind of day. :001_smile: I like that she has her own style. Nancy Reagan was very Hollywood glam, Barbara Bush was very... not. You know, she's a comfortable shoe kind of gal (nothing wrong with that, either). Hillary Clinton had the turtleneck and headband thing going on. Laura Bush has been... variable. I can't exactly pin her down to any specific thing (again, nothing wrong with that). I feel bad for all of them for being so scrutinized for what they wear - not a single one of the lot is or was lacking in substance.

My personal inaugural funny of the day. As we are nearing the swearing in and I am essentially reduced to a sniveling mass of goo, thinking on how Martin Luther King dreamed of such a day in his famous speech, delivered when he was younger than I am now, how he, if not for a bullet fired by hate, would probably had seen the realization of his dream... My seven year old turns to me and says "Is she lip-synching?" Me: "Pardon?" Her: "Is she LIP. SYNCH. ING" (because she is fairly convinced that I am a little slow) Me: "Um, are you asking if Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, is lip synching? No. No. Aretha Franklin does not lip synch." Her: "Who IS she, anyway? The queen of where?" And there you have it. My children do not know who Aretha Franklin is. I have ruined them by keeping them out of the public schools. Good grief. Obviously, we have now held a contemporary music lesson and we can now identify Aretha, John Lennon, and the lot. (Please note: My children do see Yusuf Islam and identify him as Cat Stevens, and know all the words to Peace Train, Moonshadow, and Morning Has Broken.)

Actually, I think I saw Michelle leaning over the speak with them a few times, well behaved as they are. Funny how parenting never stops, isn't it?

Ooh! Thanks! (Both for the OP's reminder and the link)