Give me news from the evening news. Names that roll off the tongue. Names that send you into shivers when Peter Mansbridge says them. I vote for:
-Corazón Aquino.
-Canaan Banana (a very homophobic former president of Zimbabwe who was accused of sodomy by his even more homophobic successor Robert Mugabe, leading to the actual headline “BANANA CHARGED WITH SODOMY.”)
-Tansu Çiller.
-Vigdis Finbogadottir.
-Attal Bihari Vajpayee.
-Svend Robinson.
-Rigoberta Menchú.
-Karol Wojtyla. (The pope.)
-Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. (Mother Teresa.)
-Lech Walesa. (Wish I could get the accents for that.)
-And finally, Vladimir Putin, if only because in French he is Vladimir Poutine. (Poutine is a Québécois delicacy consisting of French fries with gravy and cheese curds.)
[ul][li]Vladimir Zhirinovsky (Russia)[/li][li]Kiro Gligorov (Macedonia)[/li][li]Nursultan Nazarbayev (Kazakhstan)[/ul][/li]And the number one great political name:
[ul]Mangosuthu Buthelezi (South Africa)[/ul]
I always thought “Vaclav Havel” had a nice ring to it.
The name “Ben Nighthorse Campbell” appeals to me too. It’s the middle name that does it, of course: “Ben Campbell” would be dull as dishwater. “Ben Nighthorse Campbell” sounds like a Plains Indian warrior from another age.
