Today’s objet trouvé is the White House Web site’s capsule biography of John Quincy Adams, which describes Adams as “the only son of a President to serve as President himself.” Chatterbox will check back daily to see when this gets corrected. If it takes three days, he will assume the Web site’s staff questions Dubya’s legitimacy. If it takes more than five, he will assume the Web site’s staff questions Dubya’s existence. If it takes more than nine, Chatterbox will side with Bishop Berkeley (“esse est percipi“) in his famous dispute with Dr. Johnson (“I refute him thus”) and will himself question Dubya’s existence. (Click here to read Chatterbox’s earlier item about the photo mix-up on the same Web site.)
[Update, 3 p.m. PT: They fixed it–in just a couple of hours! Is this testament to the White House Web page staff’s efficiency or to Chatterbox’s fearsome power? Either way, John Quincy Adams is now described, accurately, as “The first son of a President to serve as President himself.”]
