From the Chicago Tribune: A marker has been placed at the Baskin-Robbins where Barack first kissed Michelle! You can see the brass marker on a granite stone with a picture of the first kiss (I assume it was a later one). As a historian this strikes me as a really strange monument--I can't recall anything like this for previous presidents, although I am willing to be corrected. I am certainly happy for them to be remembered for the first kiss, but normally monuments are erected for great diplomatic, political, or economic contributions.
But maybe this reflects our culture--it's all about money and tourism: The 3,000-pound granite boulder, commissioned by the owners of Dorchester
Commons, was 2 1/2 years in the making, according to Jonelle Kearney, a
spokeswoman for Mid-America Asset Management, which manages the shopping center.
She said the idea came about after several queries from visitors.
"It's a
marker for the community, for posterity and tourism, too," she
said.
Linda Swift, 67, said the marker gives tourists another reason to
visit Hyde Park, the Obamas' old stomping ground. It's not far from the Hyde
Park Hair Salon on Blackstone Avenue, where the barber chair Obama used to sit
in to get his hair cut is on display, enclosed in glass.
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