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I want to send some flowers, Janie. I want to do it myself. I don’t want to staff it out, and I don’t want to issue an Executive Order. I just want a phone number.
— Sheperd ‧ The American President
Behind the line May contain spoilers.
Our reading
An editorial interpretation.
The speaker wants an ordinary personal gesture to remain his own. Delegation and official authority would make it larger while taking away its intimacy. Asking only for a phone number brings the request back to human scale: sending flowers should not require the machinery of an office.
Context reviewed