That's what one disgruntled reader recently called me after I wrote as a guest
contributor on a well-known, well-written and well-read Hamilton blog site known as
Unquestionably Questionable. Me? A "nattering nabob of negativism"? Ouch!
I did not even know what a "nabob" was so I went to the Internet for clarification. Here is what I found:
na·bob (noun):
- A governor in India under the Mogul Empire. Also called nawab. (That can't be it)
- A person of wealth and prominence. (Wealth...no. Prominence...I don't think so!)
- A rich, powerful, or important man. (Definitely not)
So what exactly did this person mean? What was she implying?
I decided to seek enlightenment at the next most likely site to have an answer:
Henderson's Cafe & Coffee Shop in
Wenham.
For those unfamiliar with this
hot spot of community culture and local politics, it's next to the Hamilton Shopping Center (aka: The Shoppes at Hamilton Crossing) on, as they say...the "other side of the tracks". If you really want to take the pulse of our two towns, you have to visit Henderson's where opinions are never in short supply and politicians that dare to enter can always find answers to their pressing problems.
Which is why I asked several members of what I call Henderson's "Breakfast Club" if anyone knew what a "nabob" was...as in "nattering nabob of negativism".
Wouldn't you know it? A couple of the attendees were familiar with the phrase and explained where it originated, even as a third member of the group looked it up on his Apple iPhone. It seems it is one of the most popular phrases associated with U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew who served under Richard Nixon until resigning in October 1974, after pleading no contest to charges of tax fraud. He is the only Vice President in U.S. history to resign because of criminal charges. Agnew, who had a particularly acrimonious relationship with the press, used this term to refer to the members of the media, whom he also deemed "an effete corps of impudent snobs."
Although the phrase "nattering nabob of negativism" is often credited to Agnew himself, one of the breakfast club members, Phil
Stearns, knew that it was actually written by William
Safire, the legendary columnist for The New York Times, who was a speechwriter for Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew.
So...Let's get back to one person's view that this blogger is a "nattering nabob of negativism".
Thank you for that description! Now that I know the phrase was used by an ex-vice president who resigned as a result of charges of fraud to describe the press corp that helped identify and report on those charges, I am quite pleased that you referred to me this way. I can only hope that my blogging will help identify similarly guilty individuals who need to be exposed and written about, for the betterment of our community.
If you think about it, negativism is actually quite important. We need it in order to know what is wrong so that we can correct it.
Perhaps once that is
accomplished I will turn into a "Prime Pillar of Positiveness".
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