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In general, I am cautious in drawing inferences from silence. Further, I will say, I am, in general, cautious in accepting as truth what generals may say when breaking a silence on behalf of a manifestly truthless commander in chief. But present-day news reports have put me in mind of a comment Grandma Grossmann used to make, from time to time, to indicate her skepticism in the face of someone’s implausible denial. “Why, it sounds just like you, Harry!” she would say.
Gramma never said it to anyone named Harry. She said it to Grandpa Earl, she said it to me. The expression, she claimed, or, anyway, as I remember my grandmother’s explaining, had come from her seeing on TV an interview with President Truman and his wife, Bess. The interviewer asked Mr. Truman to elaborate on a statement attributed to him, but the president instantly insisted, “Oh, I never said anything of the kind! Did I, Bess?”
Mrs. Truman raised her eyebrows, tipped her head slightly, gave a little shrug, and remarked mildly, “Why, it sounds just like you, Harry!”
Wouldn’t you, dear patriotic American reader, smile today if you heard that same gentle reproach, my grandma’s seven words, in the voice of a glamorous lady with a Slovenian accent?
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