Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011
Barbecue and Paper Plates, 1963
In December 1963, just one month after President Kennedy was assassinated, the newly inaugurated President Lyndon Johnson hosted West German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard at his Texas ranch. The two leaders attended church, discussed diplomacy and held a state dinner — well, actually it was more like a luncheon. Erhard and other attendees ate coleslaw, barbecued spare ribs, pinto beans and apricot pies, all served buffet-style on paper plates. "There will be rare, medium and well-done foreign policy in Texas this weekend," an unnamed Johnson Administration official told the New York Times. Maybe that's what international diplomacy is missing these days: barbecue metaphors.