Arrivederci
At Monday’s official dinner at the White House, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi demonstrated another way that Europeans really are different from Americans. Where many of us take delight in needling President Bush for his foibles with language, Berlusconi praised his linguistic faculties.
“When I take the phone after President George Bush,” said Berlusconi through a translator, “I have always a very big problem, because he already says everything and he says that in the best possible way — so I don’t know what to say.”
The prime minister went on to say that while he pledges cooperation with the our new president, “I think it’s going to be very difficult to find somebody, another man who is really … courageous like George Bush.”
That last bit got a laugh — but only because Berlusconi said it with the top of the podium in his hands. As he was finishing his remarks, he gestured toward President Bush, at which point part of his tuxedo became caught on the podium, and tore the top clear off of it. He was forced to complete his speech by holding the piece of wood in his hands, because it was connected to the microphone.
