Misanthrope's Corner - Brief Article

National Review, March 11, 2002 by Florence King

Hanks will get his memorial, and so, eventually, will such giants of statesmanship as Thomas R. Marshall and William Rufus DeVane King, because if you get enough tourists soaking their feet in the fountain and wondering "Who the hell was he?" you have brought at least some of us together.

Naturally, the line in the State of the Union that upset so many didn't bother me a bit. It never even occurred to me to associate "axis of evil" with Germany, Japan, and Italy. The word is a geometric measurement having to do with arcs; the "Axis" nations of WWII formed an arc across the globe, as do Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.

If that sounds out-of-character, there's a reason. In college I dated a boy who wore a slide rule on his belt and droned on and on about his boring major. At some point in my halcyon days as a captive audience, the word "axis" cropped up in its literal sense and stuck in my mind.