Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush will be watching the Super Bowl on a cloud up there shouting ‘One more win for the Gipper’.
Ronnie’s most famous acting role, other than as the 40th President of the USA, was as Notre Dame great George ‘The Gipper’ Gipp in the 1940 film Knucke Rockne, All American.
And like all the best method actors he even took it into his own life off the screen, adopting the persona in his political campaigning.
As we mark Reagan’s birthday today (he would have been 110) we can look forward too to the Super Bowl tomorrow too.
It features the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And while nobody is saying Ronnie was a Patrick Mahomes nor Tom Brady, he had some American football acumen having turned out as a lineman for Eureka College in his native Illinois.
And like both he boasted Irish heritage.
Ronald Reagan’s Irish heritage remembered in his Library
The Great Communicator made California his home, of course.
Just like Ronnie himself, the keepers of the Reagan flame are charm personified as I soon discovered at the American Travel fair, IPW.
And like the best friends they always stay in touch.
The good folk at the Library have put on a virtual event which does justice to the Great Man, livestreamed on YouTube at 12.30pm Pacific/3.30pm Eastern.
Portrait of the Great Man
The commemoration includes brief remarks, a three-volley salute, musical entertainment, and the laying of the Presidential Wreath on President Reagan’s gravesite.
A word or two from Ronnie
Of course as it should be Ronnie, his life, achievements (and remember he oversaw an economic boom and helped end the Cold War), and words are to the fore.
His old office: A replica of the Oval Office
True to the wit of the man, the Library has adapted a famous story from his life to mark the 110th in their spiel for the Big Day.
‘President Reagan would have joked that it is the 71st anniversary of his 39th birthday. As President Reagan quipped on his 73rd birthday ”Even though this is the 34th anniversary of my 39th birthday, those numbers don’t faze me at all. I believe Moses was 80 when God first commissioned him for public service. And I also remember something that Thomas Jefferson once said. He said, ”We should never judge a President by his age, only by his works.” And ever since he told me that, I’ve stopped worrying.’
And someone else who fills out the seat of office
Ronnie’s distinguished Vice President and a future President himself, George HW Bush spoke emotionally at the Republic Convention in honour of his great friend in 2004.
He’s up there somewhere
When he exorted the audience by saying ‘this time we can truly win one for the Gipper.’
George HW Bush passed away a couple of years ago when I was in his adopted state of Florida.
I saw then the affection then in which he, and ex-Presidents, are held there and across the country.
So tomorrow, whoever wins, let’s here the clarion call: ‘Just one more win for the Gipper.’
That was the year that was – it’s 12 months now since I left my beloved Ireland for my first love Scotland.
I had though little intention of spending all my time in Scotia.
And instead had a long list of destinations to fill out the year.
So to mark the anniversary I’ll share the year that never was.
Off to a flier in Czech Hoptown
In the Strahov Monastery Brewery, Prague, in the Czech Republic
The Chinese lady with the mask on in the airport in Prague Airport seemed a curio at the time, a reminder of the latest virus that only affects Asia.
A few weeks later the fun and intimacy of the Czech Republic were but a warm embrace I clung onto as I entered lockdown in Scotland for the first time.
As I came out of isolation I engaged with my Czech friends again over the new-fangled Zoom app we were all compelled to use and toasted each other in time-honoured fashion Na Zdravie.
I was heartened to see them lay out a table for a feast along the Charles Bridge in the early summer and wished that I was back there again in Prague or in the Czech Republic’s Hoptown, Zatec.
I know this though that the Czechs will get through this because they have the best beer in the world, Pilsener Urquell.
Trump steals my Keys
Limin’ at a Key Lime shop in the Keys
Suitcase packed, bandana on, I was all set for my fly-drive around the Florida Keys when Donald Trump (remember him) closed the country to visitors while encouraging Americans to gather… at his rallies.
And so Hemingway’s six-toed cats, key line pie, Florida sunsets and easy living will just have to wait.
Of course the beauty of it is that Papa’s pussies won’t have had any idea that anything was even different about the past year.
Exile me in St Helena
Napoleon was here
And another on the back-burner is Napoleon’s island. No, not his birthplace, Corsica, or the one the British sent him to initially, Elba, but the one where he ended his days, St Helena.
St Helena, 1200 mile west of southwestern Africa is one of the most remote inhabitable islands in the world and is an ecological dream.
All of which makes you think that exile was a pretty good option back in the day. And if I end up needing to self-isolate anywhere then I’ll be back in touch.
Vegas or bust
What happens in Vegas: With Cami
Now I’ve always felt bad about leaving Cami from Utah at the bar at Harrah’s Las Vegas a few years ago and knowing she goes down there every weekend knew that she’d be there when I revisited in June.
The American Travel Fair was scheduled for Neon City and I was all booked and ready, my chips at the ready to make my million.
But alas I had to leave Cami waiting again and to get my fix of Vegas I had to make do with watching the world’s greatest band The Killers perform from the ceiling of Caesars Palace on YouTube.
The fair, IPW is slated for the Fall, and I’ll be expecting an Access All Areas ticket, Brandon.
And maybe even reprising my Mr Brightside from the Rising Star Karaoke Bar, CityWalk at Universal Orlando a few years ago.
And even get a painting lesson in his back garden.
But as the UK travel corridor policy became as chaotic as the Spinal Tap boys trying to get to their gigs, again I found myself blocked.
Now what is the French word for cup-de-sac?
Bergamo go, go, go
Bergamo fountains
And just as the year was petering out and I was resigning myself to my best chance of a trip down to North Berwick beach, Mamma Mia but one came off.
And in spectacular style.
The journalist in me had me tracking the evolution of Bergamo through the pandemic, it being the gateway to the virus in Europe.
And just in time I got over to Northern Italy to talk to the Bergamaschi and ask how they had got through it all and their advice on how we should all progress now.
There was specialist Lombardy food and wine, culture, history Donizetti music and art aplenty.
But the most beautiful picture was that of the emboldened Bergamaschi in the backdrop of their historic city, both in Citta Alta and Citta Bassa, the High and the Low City.
Now there are worse places to have spent this last year, with the view of the Firth of Forth from my window, Bass Rock bookending the beach and Edinburgh just along the road.
I’ve chosen to live by the sea all my adult life. It’s a primal thing knowing that exciting lands lie beyond.
I know that we’ll visit them again soon, and hopefully I can fill in the blanks above and add San Francisco, Chicago, New England and a host of other trips I had planned last year, and many to come.
You know you’ve arrived when they do that for you, believe me.
And that is exactly what they did when I visited DC as a guest of the American Travel Fair, IPW.
The 47th President of America: In Washington DC
The National Mall, for those of you watching the inauguration of President Joe Biden today, is the grassy stretch of land from the Washington Monument to the domed US Capitol.
The White House is to the north.
And flanked by all of this are the magnificent Smithsonian museums.
King for a day
US Capitol and Reflecting Pool, Washington DC
Out on that balmy May evening in Washington we were given the run of the place.
And we were treated to Aloe Blacc singing for us on stage, we were given a reception in the National Air and Space Museum.
Honest Jim and Honest Abe in Washington
The Reflecting Pool which many of you will know from Forrest Gump is the artery from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.
I have a dream: The unfinished Martin Luther King statue in Washington DC
And the climax to the Civil Rights March on Washington in 1963 when he delivered his I Have A Dream speech.
Today Joe Biden spoke of unity from a platform in front of the heavily fortified US Capitol.
It is the very same seat of government that was besieged two weeks before.
Civil War memories
Ne-Yo in Washington
Only this year was different.
With Covid and the security threat since the Storming of the Capitol meaning it was a completely different audience.
Only dignitaries, soldiers and the symbolic flags of the 400,000 casualties of the virus in the eye line.
Much has been said about America and the times we are living through.
And President Biden is an eloquent man in his own right and has a team of speech writers to finesse his sentiments.
American hero: In Washington DC
The circumstances of this inauguration and the militarised zone have been likened to the Civil War.
And that naturally conjures up the spirit of Abraham Lincoln.
With malice toward none
View of Washington from Arlington
Lincoln has been channeled regularly by his successors who wish to establish their line to the Great Man.
Few have done him credit.
Only time will tell if President Biden will be able to fulfil the lasting mission of Lincoln.
But the challenge for him and any President is to honour the pledge given on Saturday, March 4, 1865…
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds,
Give my regards to Broadway, Remember me to Herald Square, Tell all the gang at Forty-Second Street, that I will soon be there.
Because it’s come to my notice that they’re making a movie out of Hamilton for release next year and we’ve been binge-watching musicals during lockdown.
I’m taking a Yankee Doodle Dandy dander through the American musical with a stop-off in London’s West End and Dublin’s Theatreland too.
Come From Away: Which is all visitors coming into North America anyway.
These ones, of course, were the 38 planeloads who had to land in the small Newfoundland town of Dander after 9/11.
And found out a lot more about each other as I did when I saw it in Denver.
We all come from far away and have become friends over the years at IPW, the American Travel Fair, who bring the best of Broadway to whichever town is in town.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” – 1 Corinthians 13: 4-5.
Which may have been your wedding reading – it was ours, but on theweekend we can finally marry again I’d rather do it differentlythis time.
No, not with a different partner though I can’t say if the same goes for herself.
Ban-ban-ban-Bandanaman, Ban-ban-ban-Bandanaman, Take my hand, You got me rockin’ and a rollin’. Rockin’ and a rollin’. Bandanaman.
One of the most seminal pop bands in history, a California travel convention and the reunion of my Scottish poetry group and Edinburgh Festival faves.
It’s great when a Bandana plan comes together which is what happened when I channeled my alter ego for a Zoom meeting with my old poetry grouo.
And showcased my Beach Boys pastiche of their hit Barbara-Anne.
Because it was nearly a year ago that the Beach Boys https://www.thebeachboys.com gave me and my Travel friends a private concert at the American Travel Fair in Anaheim, California www.ipw.com.
When Ne-Yo threw his towel into the crowd and I stretched out to garner it to my chest.
Killer tunes
Cathy Keefe Reynolds, who looks after all the Travel journalists with the care you would would your own children (and we often behaved as such), marked the moment.
On video.
This year in Las Vegas we were promised another cracker.
New York: The Big Apple is a film set at any time of the year and we all know the tradition of the ball drop in Times Square (and I thought that was all behind me as a teenager).
But regardless of what you might be told it’s not just us tourists who pack out the square on the last day of the old year… my own NY rellies do too.
Of course the neon lights, billboards and skyscrapers are worth seeing any time of the year.
And if you do then check out my pal Tom’s Beacon Hotel, the jewel of the Upper West Side. He loves all visitors but especially the Irish…. https://www.beaconhotel.com
Glasgow: I know all about Edinburgh having lived ten years there and Daddy’s Little Girl being born there.
And I also enjoyed more than my fair share of Hogmanays (don’t ask me why) at Merkat Cross in my student days before the whole action was moved up to the Castle and Princes Street.
But while Edinburgh prides itself on its New Year celebrations, its great rival Glasgow has a party every weekend.
The George Square party in 1990 was legendary as it heralded in the Dear Green Place’s year as European City of Culture.
When two likely lads stood in Princes Street in Edinburgh with a signpost saying ‘you are only 55 miles away from the European City of Culture.’
The Murt Pack
The 47th President of America: In Washington DC
Honest Jim and Honest Abe in Washington
I have a dream: The unfinished Martin Luther King statue in Washington DC
American hero: In Washington DC
View of Washington from Arlington
