'Mr. McNamara, there's a phone call for you. Please follow me."

Readers of this circular need not be reminded of the truest truism of them all: What happens on the Edgartown ferry stays on the Edgartown ferry. Labor Day weekend is always a nice time to toss out vomit-stained linens and Anne Rice novels before shuttering up and heading back to Andover a little early to clear up this whole Asian roommate thing.

Things quiet down a little bit after Labor Day, making it a nice time to visit. Unless of course you're Robert S. McNamara. On September 29, 1972, Secretary McNamara was enjoying a pleasant jaunt out to the island when some uppity citizen recognized him, seized the initiative and nearly succeeded at throwing McNamara into the ocean. McNamara was by then President of the World Bank. He was appointed to the position after leaving the Pentagon in 1968, establishing an amusing tradition. His long, distinguished service as Secretary of Defense earned McNamara a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

McNamara's grand plans for revolutionizing the Pentagon through technology fundamentally revolutionized warfare, and the United States military won every battle it fought in Vietnam. Unfortunately, and somewhat counterintuitively, this did not affect the ultimate outcome of the war.

When President Johnson arrived at the Pentagon for McNamara's farewell ceremony on February 29, 1968, there was a slight mishap. The Secretary invited the President to join him in the executive elevator to his office, and midway upstairs, the elevator got stuck. There was pandemonium for ten minutes or so until LBJ, his Secret Service detail and McNamara were freed.

At a National Governors' Conference talk later that night, President Johnson explained what had happened in the elevator, quoting McNamara: "This is February 29th and we didn't program the computer for Leap Year!"

No word from Wolfowitz yet regarding the elevator situation at the World Bank.