How am I not myself?

Apparently, Maureen Dowd’s mother, unbeknownst to me also a writer, had a fondness for the Talmud. Dowd writes:

“Mom – a woman who always carried a small bottle of Tabasco in her purse – wrote out hundreds of recipes, adding notations of her own, including Mamie Eisenhower’s Million Dollar Fudge (1955), which she deemed “Rich as Croesus, but oh so good,” Mrs. Nixon’s Hot Chicken Salad and Barbara Bush’s High Fiber Bran Muffins.

In the middle of her recipe cards, she wrote down a quote that appealed to her: ‘The Talmud says, If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?'”

HOT CHICKEN SALAD? Mrs. Nixon – hot chicken salad?! This brings a whole new meaning to “I am not a crook.”