布什离任后生活：已习惯捡狗粪

爱思英语编者按：据法新社报道，美国前总统乔治·W·布什表示自己很快适应了从美国总统到捡拾自家宠物粪便的普通人角色的转变。布什于本周二在家乡得克萨斯州的一所大学发表演讲，礼堂内座无虚席。他称离任后不久，爱狗巴尼在邻居家草坪上“随地大小便”，使他不得不面对明显让自己丢份儿的时刻。《泰勒电讯早报》向布什办公室证实后引述他的话称：“离任才10天，我就开始手提塑料袋收拾狗粪，我已经8年没干过这活儿了。”

Former US president George W. Bush says he made a swift transition from White House pampering to picking up his pet's poop.

Bush told a packed university lecture hall in his home state of Texas on Tuesday that, shortly after leaving Washington, he faced a decidedly un-stately moment when his dog Barney relieved himself on a neighbor's lawn.

"Ten days out of the presidency, there I was with a plastic bag in my hand, picking up that which I had been dodging for eight years," he was quoted as saying by the Tyler Morning Telegraph in remarks confirmed by his office.

The former president has mostly shied from the limelight since leaving office -- except for a high-profile stint raising money to help Haiti recover from a devastating earthquake -- and kept a low political profile.

But Bush now plans a round of interviews to coincide with the November 9 release of his book about his time in office, "Decision Points."

"This will come as a shock to some people in our country who didn't think I could read a book, much less write one," joked the former president, who left office deeply unpopular amid the US economic crisis.

"It's not a judgmental book," he told some 2,000 people on the campus of the University of Texas at Tyler. "It's not a 'Bush is cool' (book)."

The former president spared a little bit of nostalgia for his eight years in office, telling the audience: "I miss being pampered; I miss Air Force 1; I miss being commander in chief of an awesome (military)."

The former president's book is expected to have a first run of 1.5 million copies, along with an e-book version containing a video message from the former president and his home movies, Crown publishers said earlier this month.

The huge print run is equivalent to that for former Democratic president Bill Clinton's book, "My Life," which was a runaway hit.