every year. without fail.
eventually, other people as well
started typing it in and posting it,
and michael would use their text
to proof his own, while insisting
on doing his version his own way,
specifically adding punctuation to
indicate pauses, noting applause,
and including "ums" and "aahs" --
if, as i hope, i remember correctly.
in recent years, the white house itself
has released the text of the speech...
and last night, for the first time, it
posted the text _before_ the speech
was even given. meaning, of course,
that their "official posted version"
failed to include the obama ad-lib
-- in response to those republicans
who made approving noises when
he said he had no more campaigns
to run -- "because i won both times".
i do believe it would've made michael
very happy to have typed those words.
i miss you, michael hart, i really do.
-bowerbird