Reader Shovels Back Over Nixon Column

Do you recall that old saying, “A rotten apple at the bottom of the barrel?” I didn’t need to go to the bottom of the barrel to find it was a Mott’s brand apple.

I’m referring to the March 16 “Nixon Grants a Presidential Garden” by Patrick Mott. Too bad Mr. Mott didn’t stick to the subject of his own article, which according to the headline was the Nixon gardens.

Mott’s statements inviting people to drive to Yorba Linda to “. . . get something of an idea of how the fertilizer gets spread at the top of the political heap,” and, “You will not find Richard Nixon hip deep in Bandini,” are conflicting statements. I wonder if during his feeble attempts to be funny using words such as “fertilizer” and “Bandini,” he realized he was actually contradicting himself.

I would say if anyone knows how to spread manure, it’s Mr. Mott. Not only does he do it well, but deep. That seems to be the only thing he does do well, since he failed to recognize that those are tangerine trees next to the library parking lot, not orange trees.

Oh, and by the way, Warren Harding’s wife’s name was Florence. As for his demeaning question--”. . . and what did she do other than get a rose named after her?”--for starters, she opened the White House and gardens again after they had been closed due to President Wilson’s illness; although she suffered from chronic kidney ailment, she gave many impromptu tours of the mansion to visitors; visited World War I veterans in hospitals and held many garden parties for them at the White House.

My advice to other readers who may come across the Mott byline, get out your hip boots, you’re going to need them.

Jo Lyons,

Yorba Linda