![\"Grand_Hotel-Mackinac_Island\"](\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/traveltattler\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/34\/2010\/07\/Grand_Hotel-Mackinac_Island.jpg\")
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Peggy Noonan traveled to stately Grand Hotel to deliver a speech at the Mackinac Policy Conference in early June. I made my way to the island and up to Grand Hotel via automobile, Shepler\u2019s Ferry, and horse-drawn carriage to hear the grand dame essayist and bestselling author of nine books including \u201cWhen Character Was King\u201d speak.<\/p>\n
I was especially excited to possibly meet her not because I\u2019d seen her on so many nationally televised news programs, but because she had also written speeches for former Vice-President George Herbert Walker Bush – including the very famous presidential nomination speech he delivered in 1988 which included her poetic phrases such as: \u201ca thousand points of light<\/em>\u201d…\u201dI am a quiet man but I hear the quiet people others don\u2019t<\/em>\u201d…and \u201cread my lips: no new taxes.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Noonan, on stage in front of hundreds of attendees, almost immediately mentioned her relationship with President Bush, emphasizing how important he was to her career and what a decent, dignified man he is. To that point she also bemoaned, in her nuanced, dramatic delivery style, that the nation is now facing an epidemic of tactlessness, an antiquated virtue Noonan insisted is crucial in personal interactions. She urged attendees to conduct themselves with tact.<\/p>\n While Noonan smiled and toyed with her blonde hair, shared that she\u2019d sent a copy of her most-recent book of collected writings entitled \u201cThe Time of Our Lives,\u201d to former President Bush. She revealed he mailed her, in response, a cute, personal thank you note back teasing:\u00a0\u201cI hope your new book sells more than Millie\u2019s book did.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(The Bushes\u2019 dog Millie \u201cwrote\u201d a number-one bestselling book about White House life in 1990 \u2013 the same year Noonan published her first book.)<\/p>\n Given the tone and content of the \u201cfellow writer\u2019s\u201d speech, and knowing her affection for the 41st president, I toted along a copy of the new book I\u2019d authored: \u201cI Call Him Mr. President – Stories of Golf Fishing and Life with my Friend George Herbert Walker Bush.\u201d It was written in collaboration with the president\u2019s very close friend and neighbor Ken Raynor from\u00a0Kennebunkport, the picturesque,\u00a0Maine\u00a0tourist town in which President Bush spends his summers.<\/p>\n So after Noonan left the stage and was making her way out of the theater to travel back to\u00a0Manhattan, I respectfully and tactfully approached her by walking beside her.<\/p>\n \u201cHello, Ms. Noonan. I am acquainted with President Bush and thought you might like a copy of my book about him.\u201d<\/p>\n She looked at the book, which has a picture of the president on the cover, and, without lifting her arms in any way to accept the it, just laughed.<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t really sure how to interpret her response, so, after her calamitous chuckle, I continued to extend the book, which she looked at as if it were a pile of fresh\u00a0Mackinac Island\u00a0horse manure. There was slight alleviation of the awkwardness of the pregnant pause when, without breaking stride, Noonan finally took the book, which included a thank you note inside. I also broke the silence with some self-deprecation by saying to Noonan: \u201cThe book might help you fall asleep when you\u2019re on the airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n This provoked another cackle, but still no words, and our meeting was concluded as she was swept behind closed doors.<\/p>\n I learned later, secondhand, that within a moment of receiving it, Noonan left the book about President Bush behind on a table in the hotel.<\/p>\n Maybe she just didn\u2019t want it. Maybe she didn\u2019t have room for it in her carry-on bag. Maybe she forgot it. Or maybe the Pulitzer Prize-winner preferred that I approach her with a copy of her book and ask her for an autograph, instead. Maybe that would have been more, as she would say, \u201ctactful?\u201d<\/p>\n Contact<\/em>\u00a0Travel Writer Michael Patrick Shiels at\u00a0MShiels@aol.com<\/u><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0His radio program may be heard weekday mornings on 92.1 FM.\u00a0\u00a0His latest book is \u201cI Call Him Mr. President \u2013 Stories of Fishing, Golf and Life with my Friend George H.W. Bush\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"