A reader (an American writer) sent me this:
"I am sure you will enjoy knowing that back in the early 1990s, when I worked for the lawyers of the New York Times, I used to go up to the Times board room to set up the board meetings. Old Punch Sulzberger was still chairman then. The room's high ceilings were covered with pictures of Times family members with famous men (and a few women) of the previous century. there was a photo of Ben Gurion, for instance. All the US Presidents. There was a giant portrait of G. Bush I on a table to one side, next to an American flag. And the part you will like the most: on a side board were two pictures, also enormous (like 11x17 or bigger) in huge crystal frames, flanking an enormous crystal swan that was itself about two feet tall. And the pictures were of - Anwar Sadat and the Shah of Iran. THey had their own little shrine in the NY Times Board Room! What can anybody say."