robio said:

New book to recommend.  "The President's Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity" It's about the unofficial club that former American presidents have and the relationships they have with current presidents and each other. Lots of very interesting stories in this.

I listened to an interview Brian Lamb did with the author on C-SPAN.  Thanks for the reminder, I'll DL it tonight.

robio said:

Given your taste in books I think you'll enjoy it. I would have liked to learned a little more about the relationships of earlier presidents, but this focuses on the "club" after it was formed by Hoover and Truman. Plus I imagine getting interviews or sources from prior would be a little tough to find.

Yeah, frankly it seemed a little superficial to me, because I had heard many of the stories before (given that I am as much of a nerd on US politics as I am on gaming), but it was certainly something I meant to read.  The earlier presidents really did not co-mingle the way our modern ones do, and our modern ones don't really do it until they are out of office.  President Obama and Bush have had little contact, just as Bush II and Clinton did prior to W's leaving office.

All the same, it is an intriguning topic, much like Club 33 at Disneyland used to be back when it was a truly insider thing.

travo said:

Is this a game about Bohemian Grove?

No, that's west coast wannabes, and no it's not Skull and Bones either. This is limited to ex-prez.

A Skull and Bones game would be awesome, right up Ubisoft's alley.

Yeah there's not a lot of huge revelations in here, even for somoene who had just passing interest in the topic. Though some of the earlier stuff they write about Nixon was a surprise to me.

And for the record I find the Club 33 reference highly amusing. I forget there are people other than myself that know a thing or two about Disney.

Nixon is the most enigmatic figure of the 20th century. He is a collossus of Greek proportions.  I would have loved to have seen what Shakespeare would have done with him.

travo said:

Now I am very interested in Club 33.

I've known someone in it since 1990. Sadly, I stupidly never took him up on going. This is what is wrong with me.

travo said:

Now, a movie about the making of Mary Poppins was just released.  Where is our Club 33 movie?

If it doesn't include a scene with Walt sk** f****** Pam Travers while screaming, "Take a spoon full of sugar", I'm not interested.

I always thought he was swinging a 9 iron between his legs. "My name is Tom Hanks, but you can call me... the three legged man."

I think it was because of his role as the alcoholic uncle on Family Ties. Don't ask what that has to do with anything though.... it's just the rum talking.