When George Bush wanted to refer to the lyrics of a song by the country group the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, he instead referred to them as the Nitty Ditty Nitty Gritty Great Bird.

[Ed.: Among presidents, such a questionable mode of expression was by no means unique to Bush. At the height of the Cold War in 1963, President John F. Kennedy made a famous speech in West Berlin: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, Ich bin ein Berliner." Although inclusion of the article, ein, made the phrase translate roughly as "I am a doughnut," German crowds enthusiastically cheered Kennedy's ringing declaration of principle.]

†