Leroy Pennington of St. Paul, Minnesota, writes:

"Has the frog or penguin ever met the President?"


Thanks for writing, Leroy! The frog and the penguin have met the President once. The encounter began when the Preisdent first spotted the penguin and exclaimed, "that ... is a dodo bird. I refuse to sign the Kyoto accords, and somehow formerly extinct animals become not extincted."

Slightly offended at being called a dodo bird, the penguin considered pulling out a prop bomb, but decided against it since threatening the President with a bomb, even fake one, would be bad for PR (we're really glad he controlled himself).

The President then said, "Extincted animals should not be not extincted. We need a deadline on signing those Kyoto accords. There needs to be one. This needs to come - this needs to happen."

The penguin, among others, heard this, and fed the President's words to the local press.

At the next day's press conference, the President was asked about his statement.
"Mr. President, yesterday you called for a deadline for signing the Kyoto accord. When would you like that deadline set?"

The President replied, "A couple of points on that. First of all, I don't think I called for a deadline. I thought I said, time -- I did? What exactly did I say? I said, 'deadline'? Okay, yes, then I meant what I said."

At that point an advisor stepped in and took over the microphone. "What the President means is, er, that he will not sign the accord. The corporations, I mean, the people, won't like that."

The President took the microphone back. "What? No, I said 'deadline,' and I meant what I said."

"The President means a deadline on getting rid of the accord."

"No, I meant a deadline on getting rid of the dodo birds."

"Um, the President has to go... walk his... fish... now." And the advisor ushered the President out of the room.

"But the dodo birds, yesterday, I saw one. Dodo birds!"

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