I am familiar with MacGonagall's "work". It is, of course, simply dreadful, but it is dreadful in such a completely unerring and unconscious way that it remains highly amusing and topical, and will probably never be forgotten. You see, that is the charm of the man...number one, the fact that he had absolutely no idea just how bad his poetry was, and number two, the fact that he was so enthusiastic about it and wrote so much of it! This is fairly rare. Most people who are astonishingly bad in the field of art are not all that motivated or determined. They dabble in it for awhile, then give up and do something else...but NOT MacGonagall! Oh, no, the man was utterly besotted with his sacred duty to lavish his poetic gifts upon an eagerly waiting empire. This is what made him so memorable. We frequently read MacGonagall aloud at Rutledge House on special occasions, strictly for amusement. Winston loves reciting MacGonagall in the most dramatic terms possible while the rest of us are simply splitting our sides, and gasping for breath.

Thus MacGonagall has unwittingly delighted generations of people who never met him and ensured his own immortality in the process.

Now do you understand, Amos? To become legendary in this fashion one must not be simply bad at poetry...one must be bad "to the bone" at it...and yet not have the slightest idea. That is the ticket. Whatever else MacGonagall lacked, he certainly did not lack confidence.

I think your President Bush may yet prove to be the William MacGonagall of politics...but he has some stiff competition. He's not nearly as funny though, sadly.

*PR