One of the most entertaining (or frustrating) aspects of recent American Presidents is that they live long enough to open their own presidential museums, thereby ensuring that history presents them in a freshly scrubbed and somewhat goofy light.

Richard Nixon was the first of these septuagenarian trailblazers, followed by Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

Now ex-President George Bush has thrown his own wrinkled Stetson into the ring.

The George Bush Presidential Museum in College Station, Texas, is long on glory and short on critique, which could lead one to wonder why he was voted out of office after only one term. Featured exhibits include a framed embroidery of a stalk of broccoli, a large "Operation Desert Storm" gallery, a big hunk of the Berlin Wall, and the parachute with which Bush jumped out of a plane at the age of 72. The former President, known for his physical hijinks, is suspected of killing Andre the Seal in a similar moment of "I'm as spry as any 20-year-old" recklessness in 1986.

On hand to congratulate Mr. Bush at the opening was ex-Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu of Japan. Bush threw up on Kaifu at a state dinner in 1992.

[11/08/1997]