User:Mbcoats/sandbox

First comment on drdpw user page

You removed the 'great tamale incident' from Gerald Ford's public image, saying it is 'not noteworthy to his public image'. It contributed to his 'image as a klutz' at least as much as another included fact, that he 'tripped while exiting Air Force One'. Can you explain how you decided it is not noteworthy? I only added it because I came across a news item about the death of the photographer who took the tamale photo. Remembering the incident myself, I wanted to see how his Wiki addressed the incident and was surprised it was omitted

@Drdpw - You removed my description of Ford's 'culinary oops' from Gerald Ford's public image, saying it is 'not noteworthy to his public image'. What standard are you using? My edit is directly relevant to the previous statement, about 'Ford's image as a klutz.' This event is a notable or noteworthy because it contributed to Ford's public image. Mbcoats (talk) 17:48, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

 In spite of his athletic record and remarkable career accomplishments, Ford acquired a reputation as a clumsy, likable, and simple-minded everyman. Henry Kissinger described him as "as close to a normal human being as we'll ever get in that office". An incident in 1975, when he tripped while exiting Air Force One in Austria, was famously and repeatedly parodied by Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live, cementing Ford's image as a klutz. In April 1976 while campaigning at the Alamo Ford committed a culinary faux pas when he bit into a still shuck-wrapped tamale. A photo capturing Ford mid-bite was published in newspapers and this became known as the "Great Tamales Incident". 

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President Gerald Ford visited San Antonio on April 9, 1976, rattling the “swords of peace” in front of the Alamo, according to the San Antonio Express-News lead story, and took the Alamo by storm, according to another on the front page.

His speech was no doubt memorable as he told a crowd of about 18,000 people in front of the Alamo, “We rejoice that this day finds no American in combat anywhere on the face of the earth.” He adapted his speech to the Alamo in several references. “Yet, we know that in peace, as in war, we must stand ready to defend liberty,” he said.

But what many longtime San Antonians may remember more vividly from his visit during America’s Bicentennial year (the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence that July), was the “Great Tamale Incident.” 

SAN ANTONIO — It was called the "Great Tamales Incident" because President Gerald Ford committed a no-no by picking up a plate of tamales during an April 1976 visit to the Alamo and started to bite into one still shuck-wrapped.  

Then-Mayor Lila Cockrell, who was at the brief tour of the Alamo, said most people gulped when they saw Ford eating one of the tamales with the husk.

"I think he just picked up the plate because if someone had given him the plate, the tamales would not have had the shucks," Cockrell said. "The president didn't know any better. It was obvious he didn't get a briefing on the eating of tamales."