HOW ARE THINGS IN THE COLONIES?:

Did Obama's iPod gift make the cut? (NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, 4/1/09, Politico)

The bestowing of the Royal iPod brought a cringe from one top etiquette expert, who said it confirmed that Obama hasn’t figured out presidential gift-giving. Or that they shouldn’t all come from Best Buy — Obama already took some grief for giving British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a boxed set of DVDs when he visited the White House.

“For me, the iPod only works if he has some catchy reason why he gave it as a gift,” said Anna Post of the Emily Post Institute. “Otherwise it feels like somebody at the White House pulled the lever and an iPod is what popped up. And if it was just pulled out of the blue, you run the risk of the ‘Oh, how nice,’ reaction from people which is the polite gloss of, ‘What on earth am I going to do with this?’ ”

The Obamas recovered a bit in Post’s eyes by also giving the Queen a rare songbook signed by Richard Rodgers. One of the Queen’s favorite musicals is Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!