Still Life with Robin: Eleanor Holmes Norton Could've Been a Dancer!

by Peggy Robin

After 15 terms (30+ years!) as DC's Congressional (non-voting) representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton is so familiar to her constituents you might think there's nothing surprising to left to learn about her. Well, at least that's what I thought. But then I was listening to Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, the weekly news quiz/comedy show airing on Saturdays on WAMU, and there was Rep. Norton as the guest on the "Not MY Job" segment of the show, and she and host Peter Sagal were bantering back and forth about various things....and I learned a couple of things about her that I would never have guessed, such as:

1. Eleanor Holmes Norton knows enough about DC....Comics, that is! to answer two out of three questions right and win the "Not My Job" quiz segment on "Wait Wait....Don't Tell Me."

2. Eleanor Holmes Norton loves to dance and does so whenever she has the chance.

And then 3. After googling the clip of our dancing Congresswoman, I came across another clip, in which I see she has ably addressed one of the nagging questions that doubters raise whenever the question of DC Statehood comes up, which is: "Will adding a 51st star cause the US flag to look unbalanced?" Here is Eleanor Holmes Norton waving the flag that answers that question....and I defy anyone to spot the difference.

Here's the link to listserv to the full show: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/27/1119759690/wait-wait-for-august-27-2022-live-from-wolf-trap

If you would like to fast forward to the Eleanor Holmes Norton segment, start at the 18min 30 sec. mark.

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Still Life with Robin is posted on The Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.