Where’s the beef? Here’s the Beef!
Bush dons ‘Beef Man’ cape
US President George W Bush, who enjoys bestowing nicknames on others, is adjusting to one Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has given him, “Beef Man”.
“It’s better than ‘Chicken Man’,” Mr Bush joked during a press conference in Manila.
Mr Bush caused controversy in the Asia-Pacific region at the start of his whirlwind Asian tour, after labelling Australia the local ‘sheriff’.
Mr Koizumi played host to Mr Bush to dinner in Tokyo on Friday.
After a sumptuous multi-course meal that included Japanese beef, the prime minister remarked on the president’s fondness for beef.
“Beef Man!” he blurted out.
Is everyone involved in international politics completely insane?
Went rather better than his father’s trip.
When Mr Bush’s father attended a state visit in Japan in January 1992, he responded to the arrival of Japanese beef steak (French-style) with a projectile vomit into the lap of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa.
Suffering from flu at the time, George Bush Senior then slumped under the table before getting up a few minutes later and announcing he felt great.
Oh, how I wish I could find a picture of it. Though I did find the fun fact that in Japan, the event was such a huge deal that it spawned a new word: “Bushusuru.” Now, the literal meaning of this word is “do like Bush,” but its real meaning is closer to “throw up a lot in a public place.”
George has made it to Bangkok, stage three of his six stop tour. Tokyo and Manila appear to have gone fairly smoothly, so far as I can tell. Just Singapore, Bali, and Canberra to go. The “meat” of the trip is the two-day APEC summit in Thailand. On Sunday he is due to give a speech to Thai troops just back from Afghanistan and tour Bangkok’s famed Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Plenty more opportunities for fun. And as noted below, he has to make it past the Australians.