On the Breakfast Circuit

An improved economy, new jobs, a lower budget deficit--those are the accomplishments of President Clinton touted most often by aides. But earlier this week, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman sought to put the spotlight on the revamped meat inspection program that the administration recently adopted. And he picked an appropriate setting--a breakfast meeting of California’s convention delegation. “We need to know that the sausage you ate today is safe,” he said. At least one of his listeners dropped his fork at that point.

The Jogging Trail

A visit First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton paid this week to an experimental parochial high school in the poor Pilsen section of Chicago got its start a year ago during a morning jog. The Rev. John Foley, a Jesuit priest who heads Cristo Rey High School, a tuition-sharing partnership between parents and Chicago corporations, was out for a run near the city’s Shedd Aquarium when he saw an entourage headed by President Clinton doing the same. Foley, a Georgetown University alumnus, yelled “Hoya Saxa,” the school motto (“What rocks!” a Latin and Greek reference to the Stonewalls, the former name for the school’s athletic teams). Clinton, also a Georgetown grad, responded with a thumbs-up. Foley later wrote him, mentioning that he was the passing jogger, then urged the Clintons to join him at the school’s opening ceremonies. The note led to Mrs. Clinton’s visit.