Subscriber of the Week
Nick LaBella
Nick “Nino” LaBella is the caretaker at Youngs Cemetery in Oyster Bay, New York, where Teddy Roosevelt is buried. Nick knows more about TR than almost anybody alive, and he passes on nuggets of that knowledge to cemetery visitors.
Nick is also a former high school art teacher, an accomplished artist, and a rabble-rousing conservative activist. He’s been standing up for truth, justice, and the American way for seven decades.
Nick occasionally suggests topics for my politickles. Needless to say, Teddy is one of his favorite topics. I wrote a couple of limericks about TR for him and was delighted to learn that he made copies of them to hand out at the cemetery.
Nick created the image at left for a t-shirt that also featured the politickle below, devoted to one of TR’s most famous quotes:
IN THE ARENA
In their triumph or in their defeat,
There is credit for those who compete,
But none for the cold
And timid soul
Ensconced in the spectator’s seat.
