In regards to the serious issue of the accent of the President:
Bob White posted:

Yes, but I bet he has some good gardening tips, which is what I foolishly
thought this NG was about.

George and Laura do like to garden. They took a personal interest in
the gardens at the mansion when he was governor. Including a large
kitchen garden because they liked fresh veggies. When they were
ordering veggie plants I noticed that they liked the full flavoured
Jalapenos over the T.A.M varieties. He also liked Ichiban eggplants
over the standard round eggplants
On Saturdays Laura Bush liked to hit the local nurseries and was
particularly interested in butterfly attracting plants, and the last
time I saw her she was picking up Asclepias curarasavica for the
grounds on 11th street.

How Texans decide when a transplant has become a 'real Texan' is
mysterious to many outside of the state, but it's really very simple.
Just look at where they spend their summer vacation.

George Bush Senior lives in Houston but spends his summers in Maine.
George Bush Jr. spends his summers in Crawford Texas, driving visiting
dignitaries around his property in one hundred degree heat to look at
the trees on his ranch. Only a real Texan behaves that way.

I took an interesting class on lanquage aquisition at U.T. ten years
ago, and what was pointed out about 'accents' aside from being local
and arbitrary , was that the degree to which they were pronounced was
a function of the individuals identification to the group.

If you live and work in Midland Texas, unless you were deliberately
distancing yourself from the community you would adopt the local
accent very quickly. His unwillingness to give up his Texas accent
for Washintonion speak I would'nt view as a bad thing. He is not
likely to be there long.

Not that there arn't more important political issues we as gardeners
should be discussing, such as the genetic engineering of plant
materials, the EPA's allowance of industrial toxic waste into farm and
lawn fertilizers as 'recyclable materials' etc.

It is a rainy day.

Steve Coyle
www.austingardencenter.com