Signs

Someone mentioned having seen Obobo's signature today. Made him feel ... odd. Sort of a creepy feeling. Well. I had to look. I'd never seen it before. I must not be much of a reader. But these "computers" you kids are always talking about make it easy, so I had it instantly at my as it were fingertips.

Yes. It is odd. Took a moment to put words to it. It looks like something you'd see spray painted under a bridge. It's like a symbol. Very adolescent. Somebody -- it couldn't have been me -- said the B looks like a penis. And a mouth. PacMan?

So we got to wondering. George W Bush?

Not very neat, but at least it doesn't look like graffiti. Look at how tiny the W is. You know what that means, right? Big shoes.

clinton?

I'm sorry it's so small. That's just how it is. Look at the LLs. Biii clinton. But nothing here looks like a penis. How ... odd.

HW?

Nothing to see here, move along. Just a fast signature.

Reagan.

An actor's signature, he said. Indeed, someone who acts. Bold, decisive. Sort of fills the screen. Interesting.

Carter.

Pow. I'd vote for that signature. That's what politics is about, though. Upfront flash. A big, big, big open smile. Disillusioning. But that's good -- who needs illusions.

Ford

Penmanship. No Is to dot or Ts to cross. Note the period though. He'd have made a good lawyer.

Nixon.

Clear, unambiguous. Yeah, I'd vote for him. That got me thinking about Laugh In, how Nixon appeared on it -- Sock it to ME? -- and we had to look at that via YouTube. Did they ever rerun that show? My pal had never seen it. So very very hip, and now so dated.

Take away lessons? There is a dividing line, generational, that determines legibility of penmanship, evinced in presidential signatures. There's a lesson in that. Obobo has the strangest signature. Carter has the nicest. This must have meaning.

I said it would make a good book, a coffeetable book. This will have to do.

J