More on White House speechwriting in September 2001.

Though the period was obviously full of tension and concern, there were several lighthearted moments, too.

For instance, at one meeting – it might have been on September 12th – when the speech staff was spit-balling ideas for the president’s sure-to-come address to the nation, one of our speechwriters, a very smart and talented guy, suggested that the United States was living in an age of terror.

This became a source of regular jokes when, in his speech to Congress on September 20th, President Bush said, “Some speak of an age of terror. I know there are struggles ahead, and dangers to face. But this country will define our times, not be defined by them. As long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror; this will be an age of liberty, here and across the world.”

You also may recall that the president took to peppering his speeches with the phrase “Let’s roll” in recognition of Todd Beamer and the passengers who brought down United Flight 93.

One day there must have been a huff about a too-loose sentence, so word came down that we weren’t to use any more contractions in the president’s speeches. Without missing a beat, Mike Gerson, the head speechwriter, emailed the staff: “From now on, ‘let’s roll’ will be replaced by ‘Let us roll.’”

And one of my all-time favorite White House moments: Our team was busily scouring news sources for tales of courageous Americans, as well as examples of the generous spirit of people around the world.

One afternoon my colleague Michelle Brawer sent an email with the subject “Heartwarming Iranian Response.” The body of the email was a news story that said, “Last week, for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution, there were no chants of ‘death to America’ at weekly Friday prayers.”

I laughed out loud when I opened that – and still get the giggles every time I read it.