This Time as the Gipper, Reagan Fumbles the Ball

President Reagan used the dedication of a commemorative postage stamp 100 years after the birth of Knute Rockne as the occasion for his sentimental journey to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. Rockne was the legendary football coach who led the Fighting Irish to 105 victories, 12 losses and five ties before his death in an airplane crash in 1931. Reagan’s association with the school dates to his 1940 movie role as the Gipper, the young football player George Gipp whose death from pneumonia is a dramatic centerpiece in the film “Knute Rockne--All American.” In a field house packed with students and local residents, Reagan said that Americans must stand firm, even when it is uncomfortable to do so. Lowering his voice to a throaty whisper as he recited Gipp’s scripted deathbed lines in the movie: “and ‘sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, but I’ll know about it, and I’ll be happy.’ ” But, apparently misreading his text on his TelePrompTer, Reagan said: “win just one for the Gippet.”

--British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has a few words to say on bureaucrats’ use of English. Thatcher’s office issued a five-page booklet urging civil servants to use simple English and short sentences. In the introduction, Thatcher writes: “Too often clarity and simplicity are overwhelmed by pompous words, long sentences and endless paragraphs.” The pamphlet quotes from the Duke of Wellington and Confucius and concludes with the thoughts of Winnie the Pooh: “Long words bother me.”

--Former Virginia Gov. Charles S. Robb said he is recovering after being knocked unconscious when he walked into a closed glass door in his Washington D.C., office. Robb said he “blacked out for a few moments” but did not require medical attention in the Tuesday night incident. Robb, one of the architects of the Super Tuesday primaries, said he was talking to a television cameraman as he was leaving his office when he walked into the door, which is normally open. Minutes later, Robb cut short an appearance on the Cable News Network. “I couldn’t remember why I was there for a few minutes,” he said. Robb later spoke with other news organizations, but he asked that the interviews be brief.