Search for ‘Frank Bruni’ (2 articles found)
List of nicknames used by George W. Bush
Former American president George W. Bush is widely known to use nicknames to refer to journalists, fellow politicians, and members of his White House staff. His penchant for bestowing nicknames may come from his experiences with Skull and Bones, the Yale University secret society that gives every member a nickname. His was reportedly "Temporary", because he never chose a permanent one.[1]Family
- Poppy, 41, Old Man – George H. W. Bush[3]
- Bushie – Laura Bush (this is a mutual nickname)[4]
Foreign leaders
- Dino (short for Dinosaur) – Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada[5]
- Pootie-Poot, Ostrich Legs – Vladimir Putin, President[6][7][8] and former Prime Minister of Russia
- Bandar Bush – Bandar bin Sultan, ambassador to the United States from Saudi Arabia[9]
- Landslide – Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom[10]
- Man of Steel – John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia[11]
- Shoes – Silvio Berlusconi, former Prime Minister of Italy
Staff
- Big Time, Vice – Dick Cheney, Vice President of the United States of America[7]
- Rummy – Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense[8]
- Izzy, Altoid Boy – Special Assistant Israel Hernandez (for his role as provider of breath mints to the President on the campaign trail)[12][13]
- Boy Genius, Turd Blossom, the Architect – Senior Advisor Karl Rove[7][14]
- Condy, Guru – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice[7]
- The World's Greatest Hero – Secretary of State Colin Powell[15]
- Big O (current), Pablo (former) – Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill[16]
- Fredo – Attorney General Alberto Gonzales[7][17]
- Danny Boy, Dan the Man – Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Bartlett[12]
- Ari-Bob – White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer[18]
- High Prophet, Hurricane Karen – Karen Hughes, Special Advisor; Director of Communications under Texas Governor George W. Bush[19]
- The Blade, My Man Mitch – Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels[20]
- Big Country – Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh[21]
- Brownie – Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael D. Brown[22]
- Brother George – CIA Director George Tenet
- Sit Room Guy – White House Situation Room Director James P. Wisecup
- Tree Man – Bush's unnamed Forest Services official [23]
- La Margarita – Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings[24]
- Tangent Man – White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card[25]
- Tiny – Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage[26]
- Light Bulb – National Energy Policy Development Group Executive Director Andrew D. Lundquist[27]
- Horny – White House Speechwriter Jonathan Horn[28]
- Bullets – Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman[29]
- M&M – assistant to Vice President Cheney Mary Matalin[30]
Politicians
- Bama, Rock – Barack Obama, former Democratic Senator, Illinois, Bush's successor as President of the United States[31][dubious ]
- Boner – John Boehner, former Republican Majority Leader, current Speaker of the House [32]
- Big Boy – Chris Christie, former United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, current Governor of New Jersey [33]
- Pablo – Paul Wellstone, Democratic Senator, Minnesota[34]
- Pedro – Peter King, Republican Congressman from New York[10]
- Hogan[35] – John McCain, Republican Senator, Arizona[10]
- Big George – George Miller, Democratic Congressman, California[3]
- Freddy Boy, Freddo – Fred Upton, Republican Congressman from Michigan[3]
- Congressman Kickass – John Sweeney, Republican Congressman, New York[36]
- Nellie (former), Benney (former), Benator (current) – Ben Nelson, Democratic Senator, Nebraska[37] (Daily Show, 02/28/05)
- Ellis – Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer, Democratic Senator, New York[38]
- Ali – Barbara Boxer, Democratic Senator, California[10]
- Frazier – Dianne Feinstein, Democratic Senator, California[10]
- Sabertooth – Barney Frank, Democratic Congressman, Massachusetts[39]
- Red – Adam Putnam, Republican Congressman, Florida[40]
Journalists
- The Cobra – Maureen Dowd[41]
- Stretch/Little Stretch – David Gregory, NBC[42][43][44]
- Stretch – Dick Kyle, Bloomberg News[44]
- Super Stretch – Bill Sammon, then of The Washington Times, now of The Washington Examiner[44]
- Mikey – Mike Emanuel, Fox News[45]
- Shades – Peter Wallsten, blind reporter for the Los Angeles Times[46]
- Panchito – Frank Bruni, reporter who covered Bush campaign in 2000 for the New York Times[47]
Others
- Kenny Boy – Kenneth Lay[48]
- Weadie, Weadnik – author Doug Wead [49]
- The Englishman – Peter McMahon, husband of Dana Perino [50]
- Flies on the Eyeballs Guy – Director of the CIA Counterterrorist Center Cofer Black [51]
- Rosey – appointee Jack Rosen[52]
Frank Bruni: Torrisi Italian Specialties
…“That really struck me: an iconic Italian street in Chinese characters,” [Rich Torrisi] says. “I thought: we need to play upon these things that happen in America.” From that impulse, shared by [Mario] Carbone, their restaurant’s foray into Italian-Asian cuisine was born. They dressed sauteed broccoli rabe with dried scallops. They prepared fried rice in which thinly shaved prosciutto replaced nuggets of pork. And they acknowledged the proximity of the famed Jewish delicatessens of the Lower East Side with an antipasto called crostini Russ-and-Daughters. Named for the renowned purveyors of Jewish appetizing, it layered smoked sturgeon and cream cheese on housemade bagel chips, then added accents like sesame seeds and poppy seeds.
They even found an Italianate assignment for the Jamaican beef patty — something, they note, that’s incongruously served in a great many pizzerias. The patty is an envelope of pastry with seasoned ground meat inside, so they made squiggles of cavatelli from dough that included shortening, which the pastry would typically contain, and curry powder. For the shortening they used goat fat, in honor of the animal in Jamaican curries. And in a beef ragu to go over the cavatelli, they incorporated seasonings a patty might have: cardamom, cumin, coriander.
They weren’t thinking about fusion per se. They were thinking about New York and approaching terroir, a French concept usually applied to the climate and natural harvest of a given area, in a new way. What ethnic foods had come to co-exist in, and define, the terroir of this city? The answer: Almost every kind. Their take on chicken fra diavolo gets some of its heat from sriracha, an Asian pepper blend. It sits on a slick of un-Italian yogurt.
…Besides which, does Italian provide the same template for experimentation that French does? French, many chefs say, is less a larder with finite parameters than a foundation and set of rituals, to which a plethora of exotic flourishes can be added. [Andrew] Carmellini recalls that at Cafe Boulud, whose kitchen he ran from 1998 to 2005, he prepared bass with coconut milk, bamboo leaves, Kaffir lime. “The only thing that made it French was the technique: steaming the fish separately and pouring the broth over it tableside,” he says. He can’t think of an Italian analog, and doesn’t know what the future of Italian fusion holds.
At Locanda Verde, an Italian restaurant he opened in TriBeCa in 2009, Carmellini has been serving a dish of farro and duck with Cajun seasonings. It has one foot in Italy and one in Louisiana and suggests that if Italian grains and noodles are treated as a canvas — the way pizza, a relatively isolated precinct of riotous Italian fusion, has been for decades — an array of other ethnic influences can provide the brush strokes.