Curious Georges

President George to Painter George: "What's your first name?" Painter George to President George: "George." President George to Painter George: "That's my name, too!"

Subway, 1950 and...My uncle in earlier years: not crazybeautiful but, rather handsome, nonetheless.

Last month my very deaf and aged uncle George Tooker received a National Medal of Art from the President for all his years of hard work as an artist along with Andrew Wyeth, Les Paul and seven others. As I took my uncle up to Penn station by taxi to catch the train to D.C. I asked him if he was excited about going. Here's how the scene played out: Me: "Are you excited to be going?" Uncle: "Am I a Quaker? Well, yes, I do have some Quaker heritage." (We don't.) At this point, he reached into his pocket looking for something. Uncle: "I gave the Quakers some money and they gave me this." He withdrew his hand from his trouser pocket and showed me a small button that says, "Stop The War In Iraq" Me: Figuring if there is ever a time to manipulate an old man, this is it: "I'll give you money if you give that to the President." Uncle: Smiles wanly as he knows I'm just trying to fuck him up at the White House. (I said he was deaf, not stupid or senile.) Well, he didn't give the button to the President, which is too bad because it would have been so ballsy and wonderful. And if it weren't for this blog entry I could just pretend that he had, thus preserving our family legacy of embellishing or lying about our family legacy. (To reiterate: we're not descended from Quakers - though I did briefly attend a Quaker high school. Nor, was a certain ancestor ever kidnapped by Native American Indians and then returned because she was too ugly to rape.) It would have also been most excellent if my uncle had simply refused the medal as Adrienne Rich did back in 1997. "I could not accept such an award from President Clinton or this White House because the very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration." (How like a great poet to devise a one-refusal-fits-all-American-Presidential-administrations. Word up, Adrienne!)