The Grand Tradition of the White House State Dinner

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White House state dinners are Washington's quintessential social events and a way to practice classy diplomacy. The dinners can honor a good relationship with a foreign leader, like Thursday's dinner for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and first lady Kim Yoon-Ok, or they can be an attempt to patch over a bad one.

[Check out this slide show of state dinners throughout history.]

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle's fifth official state dinner followed Congress's approval of free-trade agreements with Korea, Columbia, and Panama, which had been languishing since they were introduced in 2007 under President George W. Bush.

The visit also apparently inspired Republican Sen. John Kyl to, at the last minute, stop blocking the nomination of the new U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Sung Kim. The Senate confirmed Kim­­—who will be the first Korean-American ambassador to Seoul—minutes before President Lee addressed a joint session of Congress.

Past dinners have also been a way to further U.S. foreign policy. In September 2001, for example, Mexico's President Vicente Fox marked his growing relationship with Bush during a state visit. The two were looking for ways to cooperate on the fight against drug trafficking and find a solution to illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States. Experts close to the issue believe some kind of path to citizenship was imminent, but the 9/11 attacks changed everything, pushing the immigration discussion immediately to enforcement.

During the Cold War, there were a few visits by Soviet leaders, which kept up the delicate diplomatic dance the two countries practiced. In 1990, just months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife Raisa visited with President George H.W. Bush. Gorbachev disregarded the black-tie dress code and wore a business suit, as he had done during his previous state dinner with Reagan in 1987.

[Read: After 9/11, immigration became about enforcement.]

In 1959, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was the first Soviet leader to visit the United States. During the state dinner, he and President Dwight D. Eisenhower talked openly about the tricky relationship between the two nuclear powers. Eisenhower said, "Because of our importance in the world, it is vital that we understand each other better."

Khrushchev agreed, acknowledging the need "to come to an agreement on the improvement of our relations, because our two countries are much too strong and we cannot quarrel with each other. ... If we quarrel, then not only our countries can suffer colossal damage but the other countries of the world will also be involved in a world shambles."

The dinners have also marked cultural events close to the heart of the American people, like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Kennedys had scheduled a state dinner for West German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, but after Kennedy was shot a month before the dinner, the responsibility fell to President Lyndon Johnson. Since the nation was still mourning Kennedy's death, Johnson moved the state dinner to his Texas ranch for a less formal barbecue.

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Homecoming mum tradition goes over the top in Texas

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By Marice Richter

DALLAS, Texas | Sun Sep 25, 2011 5:12pm EDT

DALLAS, Texas (Reuters) - What started out as a simple token gift from a teenage boy to his girl has morphed into a tradition of gargantuan proportions that, again, proves everything is bigger in Texas.

It's the homecoming mum, and it has come a long way since parents of today's teens were in high school.

Back then, it was a real chrysanthemum flower given by a boy to his date, similar to a corsage given for a prom.

"There were a few ribbons on them, but it was basically a flower you pinned to your blouse," recalled suburban Houston mother Lauren DeLorimier, who went to school in the 1970s. "Somewhere between the 1970s and the 1990s, that all changed."

Today, they are mammoth, over-the-top splays of silk chrysanthemums festooned with flowing ribbons, plush animals and an array of colorful trinkets that have spawned competition among girls to see whose is the biggest, and therefore, best.

Homecoming season kicked off this weekend for high schools across the South -- and these bountiful blooms, which weigh more than a household pet and often reach the floor, show no signs of becoming shrinking violets.

Technology has made it possible for mums to be outfitted with colorful LED lights and connections for iPods or CD players, adding splash with audio and visual capabilities.

With so many features, a mum can cost up to $500. Not surprisingly, savvy entrepreneurs, mainly women, have taken advantage of the opportunities, spawning a multimillion-dollar industry of cottage mum-makers, supply retailers, and manufacturers of ribbons, trinkets and other mum necessities.

DeLorimier, who saw all this coming when her daughters were in high school about 10 years ago, started making custom mums out of her home before opening a shop of her own.

HEAVY LIFTING

The standard cardboard backing that supports the mum was inadequate for the increasingly hefty job. So with the help of her husband, an engineer, she created and manufactured a sturdier polyurethane base, now a staple online and in her 12-year-old, seasonal retail store.

"You need something strong to support a mum that weighs 20 to 30 pounds," she said. "It is definitely my best seller."

Despite the sagging economy, teens and their families are still willing to spend lavishly on homecoming, for party clothes, fancy restaurants, tickets, a limo, and the mammoth mums.

And though not every teen can afford to spend hundreds, they still find ways to observe the custom.

At some high schools, a do-it-yourself mum costing from $20 to $50 is more standard than a professional custom creation.

Custom mum-maker Charity Drabik of Fort Worth is trying to put a new spin on the do-it-yourself mum by offering mum parties similar to Tupperware parties.

"I think this is a good way to make a mum at a lower cost and have fun in the process," she said.

L&M Wholesale and Manufacturing, based in the small North Texas town of Glen Rose, produces imprinted ribbon and other supplies and sells them to Texas grocery and drug stores, craft shops, florists, custom mum makers and booster clubs.

The tradition of the mum involves an exchange between a boy and girl who go to homecoming together. The boy presents a girl with a mum that she wears attached to a cord around her neck.

The girl presents her date with a mum attached to an elastic garter that he wears on the upper part of one arm.

DISTINCTIVE

The homecoming mum is distinctive in Texas, where the over-the-top mum is widely considered to have blossomed first. But high schools in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana have adopted the tradition as well.

"I've had orders from as far away as military bases in Germany," Braswell said. "It seems like wherever someone from Texas goes, they try to take the mum tradition with them."

And non-natives, it seems, are eager to embrace it. Dallas-area resident Theresa Hagerman, who grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, made her first mum two years ago for her son's date, and then branched out into her own line.

"When I was growing up, the homecoming tradition was a parade with floats representing different school organizations," she said.

"That isn't done so much anymore, at least around here. To me, the mums replace the floats and celebrate the kids and what they are all about."

Sidney Heath, the girlfriend of Hagerman's oldest son, James, recently received the crown jewel of Hagerman's mums. A front and back mum sandwiches her body and is attached to a dog harness for strength and comfort.

"I absolutely love it," she said before a homecoming game in Southlake, Texas, on Friday. "I wanted it be big, and it is really big. It may be the biggest of any this year."

Ceclia Valudos, who has been making custom mums in North Texas for 14 years, said the mums are cherished keepsakes the girls keep for years.

Having recently been laid-off, she is considering going into the mum business and marketing beyond close friends.

"I love sparkle and bling," she said. "I want my mums to be seen as works of art."

(Editing by Karen Brooks and Jerry Norton)

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