Did I write Sullivan's Speech?

 

Reading the transcript of the American-Chinese meeting in Alaska last week, it jumped into my sleepy brain: I wrote this thing, did I? 

SULLIVAN: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and welcome to Director Yang and State Councilor Wang. It's fitting that we're meeting here in Alaska. We may be far from the continental United States, but there are few places that are as quintessentially American: big-hearted, resilient, intrepid. This is truly a fitting place for us to host this meeting.

Prof. Moshe Many, President of Tel Aviv University, had to speak at a Board of Governors Meeting and asked me to write him the opening speech. I wrote "It's fitting that we are meeting here in TAU campus, in Israel..." etc. I too used the recherche word quintessentially. The speech was a great success and I was paid 200 dollars. Prof. Many was Syrian Jew who specialized in venereal diseases and travelled frequently to Saudia to treat King Saud. Since then, I keep finding my rhetorical inventions recycled on the most unexpected occasions. For example, in every Annual Meeting since then. "This is truly a fitting place for us to host this Annual Meeting of TAU's Board."