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Disdain Will Reign if You Nip Off to Spain

With apologies to Lerner and Loewe.

Calvin Trillin

August 12, 2010

(A conversation that White House advisers who’d seen My Fair Lady might have had with Michelle Obama before her vacation.)   "Disdain will reign if you nip off to Spain. Disdain will reign if you nip off to Spain." "And what would raise less Cain?" "Say, Maine, by train. Somewhere in this domain You should remain. We ascertain that someplace more mundane— A camping ground or something in that vein— Would be much more germane. If you could deign To now refrain from Spain, Which reeks champagne…" "Refrain from Spain ’cause someone may complain? Refrain from Spain? You take me for insane?"

Calvin TrillinCalvin Trillin is The Nation’s “deadline poet.”


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