Gary Johnson "Aleppo"

Recently Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for President of the United States and former Governor of New Mexico, was interviewed by Mike Barnicle. Mr. Barnicle of  the "Morning Joe" show on MSNBC asked Mr. Johnson what he thought of Aleppo. "Aleppo, What is that?" replied Mr. Johnson.

Now, I don't blame Mr. Johnson for not being familiar with Aleppo as they say in the famous Led Zeppelin song "Stairway To Heaven", "Sometimes words have two meanings". In the case of Aleppo I can think of three meanings to "Aleppo" as I'm quite sure most of you can as well. Just  to review, Aleppo is a  city in Syria that was in the news that was allegedly gassed by either the Syrian government forces or forces of the "rebels" that gassed the people but tried to represent that the Syrian government did the "gassing".

HOWEVER, there are other definitions for the word Aleppo. Aleppo pepper is a spice used in Mid-East and Mediterranean cuisine. Perhaps, Mr. Johnson was thinking to himself "Am I on a left leaning cable news channel or did I by mistake walk on to the set of a "Food Channel" show and this Mr. Barnicle character is some sort of celebrity chef asking about spices?

Another definition of the word Aleppo has to do with the "Shriner organization"  with  their "Aleppo  Shriner Circus and  Aleppo auditorium  in Wilmington,, Massachusetts.

So, if I were Mr. Johnson in the "Aleppo situation" I would consider replying "What is the origin of the word Aleppo?; can you please use it in a sentence? Which definition of the word Aleppo are you talking about?" You know, like they do in the exciting "Spelling Bee" competitions.

Maybe as well, Gary Johnson was thinking about the mysterious "Marx Brother Aleppo" (aka Gummo) you know, the brother that never appeared in any of the movies but was off camera getting coffee and cigars for his other movie star brothers. I don't know. As Hillary Clinton would probably say, "Aleppo, Schmeppo, what difference does it make?