Recently, renown Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss posted a tweet of some relatively minor historical significance, which included an image of the “new” and apparently not-so-improved White House Rose Garden, which was markedly revised during the previous administration.

Image accompanying Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss’ tweet of the White House Rose Garden after Malaria’s macabre makeover of it, August 2020.
His observation created an uproar.
It’s the same type syndrome seen in Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 moralistic tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”; no one says anything at the time, and then, when the king goes bonkers, everybody still oohs and aaahs about how beautiful, lovely, and perfect his new garments are… even though he’s wearing none.
But when the lone voice of a child points out the truth, suddenly, everyone loses their head.
Apparently, the last time the garden revision was “re-introduced” — shortly before the Republican National Convention — the announcement of changes made to it didn’t cause as much a stir as this reminder of last year’s event.
Malaria’s macabre “makeover” mockery couldn’t have been less well received… again.
Tens of thousands of people flew off their handles on Twitter — the Twitterverse was all a twaddle — and many, if not most, of them didn’t have nice things to say. Of course, nowadays, that is an expected par for the SoMe (Social Media) course.
And, as is similarly par for the modern course, “journalists” find themselves writing about what worthless things were posted about some inanely foolish event mentioned on Facebook, or in this case, Twitter. It’s amazing what passes for “journalism” these days.
But, the stir it created was found worthy, even, of a response by the aesthetes at Architectural Digest magazine who weighed in on the fracas, ostensibly to Read the rest of this entry »