Louis Roney: Assorted sorties

For some 18 years in New York I had a splendid black, male poodle who wore a simple sheep cut. Just a nice crown — no knobs or other grotesqueries. When I walked him across the street in Central Park where rows of people often sat on benches, he caused quite a commotion with his physical beauty and his simple gate of poodle-superiority. He greeted people formally going toward them, and stopping short of being too familiar. He never jumped on anyone in all his years. His manners were so impeccable that I was embarrassed to take credit for them. He was simply born a perfect gentleman — and I often told admirers that I had learned my manners from him! He had a fine French name, but everyone who met him instinctively called him “Sweetie,” and that name stuck with him through the years. He went to Europe with me a dozen times and had admirers in every opera house where I was rehearsing and performing. One day in Paris when the streets were icy, and the sidewalks covered with salt, I took Sweetie out for an early walk, then came back to my hotel room and stood him in three inches of warm water in the tub to remove the salt from his paws – as salt, if left on, can crack a dogs’ paw-pads wide open. When I walked into the Paris Opéra stage entrance to rehearse “Elektra” with Birgit Nilsson, the concierge looked at the ground around my feet, and asked concernedly, “Oú est votre ami?” (“Where is your friend?”) I explained about the salt on the sidewalk and told him that Sweetie was in my hotel room. “C’est bien!” (“That’s fine!”) he said, relaxing.

Winter woes

When we hear complaints about Florida’s winter weather, we recall a Christmastime in Oxford, England, where we had been walking around all day in short sleeves enjoying unseasonal 65 degree weather. We phoned our Winter Park home and were told that during the night the temperature had hit 19 degrees and our outside pipes had burst!

Pay as you go

“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle, which if acted on, would save one-half the wars of the world.” – Thomas Jefferson

Taking stock

Would you buy stock in our federal government if it were a business on the New York Stock Exchange? The government cannot compete in creating wealth — it can only spend the money it forces the citizens to give it. Jefferson said, “When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.”

Jefferson’s prowess

John F. Kennedy held a dinner in the White House for a group of Nobel Prize winners of the Western Hemisphere. He made this statement: "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

Stop the spending

The national debt amassed by the previous 43 presidents combined, from Washington to G.W. Bush, was $10.6 trillion. President Obama alone in three years has added $4.7 trillion more to the debt, is still spending and his term isn’t over yet! Why don’t we make this president keep his word and stop his wanton squandering?

About Roney:

Harvard’42—Distinguished Prof, Em.—UCF

2004 Fla. Alliance for the Arts award

(Assisted by beautiful wife Joy Roney)