When First Lady Laura Bush went on her whirlwind Africa tour a couple of weeks ago, First Twin [Second First Daughter?] Jenna accompanied her. At the end of a visit at an elementary school in Bamako, Mali which had no electricity and a single water spigot--which was removed as part of the US Embassy-led sprucing up of the schoolyard--Jenna passed out giftbags:
"Woof, woof, woof," said Jenna Bush, daughter of the president, smiling as she handed reversible hand puppets of Barney, the first dog, and Kitty, the first cat, to giggling children in the shade of a school courtyard.So NPR devotes a whole story to the extensive--and temporary--cleanup, but there's only one lousy mention of these ambassadorial puppets? Forget "liberal media"; when I can't find out what kind of diplomatic schwag to buy, I call it what it is: communism.
The Artistic Toy Manufacturing Company of Easton, PA makes reversible cat/dog promotional puppets, and they also do custom orders, which means the dog could be changed from white to black, and from a hound to a Terrier.
They only do wholesale, though, and minimum order's 100 for the regular version, no idea what it is for a custom. So if you really want a First Pets puppet, I see two equally implausible options: wait for the Malian kids with one crankup radio between them to get online so they can sell their puppets on eBay, or find 99 other people who want to remember the Bush administration.
A Chance To Get Schooled [chicago tribune]
Ahead of First Lady's Visit, A School's Facelift [npr.org]
Feh. And here Bono's wasting his time with AIDS drugs for Africa, when all they really needed was reversable hand puppets.
I guess if anyone knows about puppets, it'd be the Bushes.