Jonah has a good point. If memory serves, it was that great Republican

president Warren G. Harding who released lefty troublemaker Eugene Debs from

jail (whither he had been sent by Wilson) on Christmas Eve 1921, saying: “I

want thim to eat his Christmas dinner with his wife.”

Harding’s middle name was “Gamaliel.” When I first encountered this fine

man in my reading, I didn’t know where to stress “Gamaliel,” so I asked an

American historian. Then I wrote a poem to help me remember.

Higgledy piggledy

Warren Ga-MA-liel

Quite unexpectedly

Gave up the ghost.

Taciturn Yankee,

Woken from slumber,

Sworn in by father,

Took up the post.

[Kathryn: I have lots more poetry for The Corner, if there’s a demand for

it. Kathryn? Hello?]