By Randy Cohen
Representative Mom: Balancing Budgets, Bill and Baby in the U.S. Congress, by Susan Molinari.
The actual book by the actual former representative. You are invited to submit the title of a sure-to-be-forthcoming book by another public figure likely to be published by November.
by 5 p.m. ET Sunday to e-mail your answer (NewsQuiz@slate.com).
Responses to Wednesday’s question (No. 45)–“Threes”:
What is “the Federal Triangle,” and why is it news?
“The three block radius around the White House where college students get 20 percent off bikini waxes.”–Beth Sherman
“The instrument the now-dribbling (and COUNTRY-RUINING!!!!) Ronald Reagan has been reduced to playing in the Federal Band.”–David Rakoff (Barry Crimmins, Fritz Strohmeyer, and Tim Carvell were similarly musical.)
“It’s what you’ll find if you follow Clarence Thomas’ gaze as he passes the statue of blindfolded Justice outside the Supreme Court building.”–Dan Simon (Doug Strauss and Tim Carvell were similarly genital.)
“The mysterious region within the Beltway where tax dollars reportedly vanish.”–Alexander van Gaalen (M.G. Lord and Gary Frazier were similarly fiscal.)
“If you fall into it, you are never seen again, except every once in a while on C-SPAN, the pupils of your eyes casting an eerie yellow light as you talk about policy issues in a creepy monotone.”–Meg Wolitzer
“Bill, Hillary, and whichever bimbo is currently taking legal action.”–Leslie Goodman-Malamuth
“If Ronald Reagan doesn’t remember, why should I?”–Sam Coppersmith
Click for more responses.
Randy’s Wrap-Up
In lieu of the wrap-up, I’d just like to reiterate that Dan Aykroyd and Donna Dixon dropped $600.51 on dinner Monday night. They carried off the leftovers (oh, right, like there were leftovers!) in a shopping bag for a picnic in hell with Roy Cohn.
Addled In The Saddle Answer
As many of you know, the Federal Triangle is a complex of government buildings authorized by Congress in 1926 to replace a shabby neighborhood along Pennsylvania Avenue. It was completed Tuesday with the opening of the Ronald Reagan Building, the second biggest federal building ever (after the Pentagon), apparently named by the same cheap ironist who thought Ronald Reagan Airport was an apt memorial to the union-busting, reality-muddling former president.
Leftovers
“Once they go after the hog producer, the next thing they are going to do is go after the cattle producer. Then it is just going to be a slippery slope before they come after us all.”–Nebraska Rep. Jon Christensen, Republican candidate for governor
“It was absolutely no accident. They dropped a 10-pound flowerpot. It was a well-placed shot.”–Louis Anemone, NYPD Chief of Department
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