Cold blooded
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s environmentalism is well known. And to hear him tell it, it could have all started in the early ’60s with a visit to his uncle, JFK, at the White House.
Speaking at Politics & Prose on Monday to promote his new kids’ book, “Robert Smalls, the Boat Thief,” he told the assembled children about receiving a gift of stationery when he was young. So he wrote his uncle a letter to ask for an appointment.
Appointment set, he decided to take along a gift — a black and white spotted salamander. Little did he know that his water at home had been changed to chlorinated water. So when he put the salamander in the chlorinated water it
died.
Undaunted, he still took the lizard to JFK. His uncle tried in vain to revive it, then suggested that perhaps they take it for a walk to release it into or near the fountains on the White House grounds. To this day, he said, he still does not know what then happened to the salamander.
(Photo: Carrie Devorah)
