Got it!

I got a copy (two, actually) of AD at O'Hare while traveling today. The photos are beautiful, altho I wish we'd seen one or two of the private rooms (even the Family Kitchen!). The Green Room looks great and the Lincoln Bedroom is marvelous, but the Queens' Bedroom is as frumpy as ever. You'd think that first families would be more adventurous with the lesser known guest room. The Vermeil Room is somehow still boring, despite the goldware. It's nice to see the Palm Room, tho.

Also, I must say, the Porsche advertising insert was very persuasive. It fairly convinced me that I want a Porsche. But what is with that ad on page 35? Are they selling Isabella Rosselini? As much as I admire her beauty and talent, I won't be a part of the illicit film star trade.

Architectural Digest

I still haven't had a chance to pick up the new Architectural Digest with pics of the Bush redecoration. I've looked for it locally, but couldn't find it. I didn't want to go all the way to Barnes & Noble or Borders because I knew I'd be passing thru O'Hare airport Monday and it would certainly be there. Cue the severe weather flight delays.... and I had to rush to catch my connection.

This week I'm in Sacramento. Surely these people are civilized. The weather certainly is.

Welcome, Nick Cage fans

I saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets this past weekend. The titular book is a diary passed from president to president that holds all their deepest secrets. Given the vagaries of politics, that seems unlikely (Carter wouldn't release Nixon's missing 18-minute tape?), but the point of it is that the book contains a photo of a wooden plaque that was formerly concealed in a secret compartment of the Resolute desk—one half of a treasure map that has something to do with the Queen of England. Her Resolute desk (the feminine fraternal twin to our president's) contains the other half. Naturally, Nick Cage must sneak into the Queen's private office and the Oval Office (it looks just like GWB's) to get the information that he needs, only it's not there, and he has to ransack the Library of Congress. Unfortunately for him, the president's secret book is one of the 17 million items I purloined from the Library of Congress a few months ago and the movie ends with him being nonplussed, chagrined, arrested, indicted, arraigned, and other French terms. The End.

Anyway, as a result, "Resolute Desk" is now the top term that brings visitors to the White House Museum. Welcome!

Cheese it! The fuzz!

The president has been posing with groups again. One is of a delegation of state police in full uniform. I find it interesting in this great union of states how the uniforms of state troopers vary so widely, with inspiration that seems to come from Canadian mounties, the US Army, forest rangers, Old West sheriffs, and beat cops from the 1940s. None of them seem interested in those pointy helmets the British bobbies wear, tho....

And who's for changing the draperies in the State Dining Room? The current ones are so busy they seem to have three small children and a second job.

Halloween at 1OC

The vice-president has some pretty nice porch furniture (pictured here, behind Bark Vader and Superdog) at the Navel Observatory the Naval Observatory.

Open post: Nothing new

I went looking for new things to add to the site or to blog about and got off track looking at a political blog which distracted me with an old speech by Bill Clinton where he uses the phrase "Yore Kippur," so I went searching for it and found a small number of reliable sources that also used it but no explanation, so I put a note on the talk page of "Yom Kippur" article in Wikipedia.

Sometimes I hate the Internet.

OOPDATE: It's apparently just a typo, altho why it appeared in a presidential speech in multiple places, I don't know. You know who's responsible for this? Some schmendrick, I bet. Possibly a fakakta schmendrick.

I have 13% of all Library of Congress materials

The cat is out of the bag. While I was in Washington, I stopped by the Library of Congress and slipped away with 13% of their materials. I stuffed the 17 million items in my pants and walked out without permission (the trick is, as you waddle past the guard, to mumble "I have got to go on a diet!").

My motive was simply to have materials to start my own library, but I also always wanted to learn something about radial aircraft engines, the Polish monarchy, and Native American weaving. In my defense, I intended to photocopy the materials and then put them all back. Which reminds me: I also took one of those high-speed book photocopiers and 80,000 reams of paper.

DC day 3: monumental error

Today I got up late and failed to get to the Washington Monument in time to get a ticket; they were all out by 10:30. So I went to the Natural History Museum, which was my plan anyway while I waited for my time to go the WM. After an exhausting couple of hours there seeing my fill of trilobites and buying the Hope Diamond for my mother, I walked over to the White House and shot it in full sun.

By this time, my back was killing me because, over the past twelve years as a technology consultant, my back muscles have been replaced with Hostess cream filling (I can explain the process and cost benefit with a PowerPoint presentation and Excel spreadsheet).

Nevertheless, I stopped in and toured at the Latrobe-designed Stephen Decatur House (great call, John). It's in the process of being restored to its early-19th-century origins; thankfully, the first thing they restored was Latrobe's kick-ass air-conditioning; you would have thought it was a meat locker. It's an unusual house in that the kitchen is up front, as in a modern house, and the entertaining rooms are upstairs. It has the same in-frame shutters that the White House once had. And, authentic to its period, the front lamps are lit by gas and no photography is allowed inside—altho woodcuts and scrimshaw are presumably okay.

Then I cabbed it over to the Spy Museum, which was way better and more popular than I had imagined. It's built into a storefront and doesn't look like much from the outside but is designed very compactly, so there is a lot to see (but no photography!). The tight space adds to the atmosphere of espionage (as does the rampant, surreptitious camera-phone use), and the exhibits are very well done. Of course, at $16 a head and patrons streaming in and out for the full extended-hour day, they can afford to make it really cool. By the way, if anybody asks, my name is Billy Henderson; I'm a 14-year-old American student here in London on vacation for 9 days, and I have always had a mustache and a limp.

Oh, and Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum just opened with—I kid you not—lines around the block. I shot it after it had closed and the lines were only half-way around the block. It's a pretty cool exterior design, with all the glass, altho I think they missed an opportunity to do a Nighthawks/Boulevard of Broken Dreams take with JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, and James Dean.

Lincoln Museum

I spent a few hours at the Lincoln Museum today, and the experience was terrific. The exhibits consisted of life-like figures, multimedia displays, and lots of giant documents. There wasn't a lot in the way of personal memorabilia, tho; I think I could have fit everything they had that Lincoln actually touched in the trunk of my car. It would have been nice to see, you know, Lincoln's limousine or helicopter or something, like at the Reagan museum. They did have an impressive recreation of his funeral, tho, which is something I guess. You won't find that at the Clinton museum. Also, by the end of it, I really wanted an interactive experience where you get to spank Tad Lincoln.

Some of the multimedia displays were really, really cool. Projectors threw shadows of rain on the wall or images of naysayers in mid-air. There was a gallery of political cartoons that could have been boring, but they were framed in crooked frames and hung on crooked walls, which created a disorienting effect that would be fun to replicate with my own photos. The whole White House part had a funhouse atmosphere that made me half-expect to see ladies' dresses flipped up by a blast of air at the end (accompanied by the disembodied laughter of Tad, naturally).

There was a recreation of the Blue Room, guest bedroom (where Willy lay in a fever), and Lincoln's office, all of which gave me a deeper appreciation of Victorian style.

I would have taken more pictures, but they don't allow photos in the exhibits, because they don't want people stealing all their juicy history or possibly learning anything outside the museum. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was the same way. Hey, if you want to see Roy Orbison's lousy spelling* or Britney Spear's denim-and-leather-flames ensemble, you'll have to go to Cleveland. That kind of knowledge isn't free.

* To be fair, every example of original song lyrics had lousy spelling, even Robbie Robertson's.

Happy dollar coin release day

Another dollar coin release day is upon us, and I have only just taken down my garlands and wreaths from the Adams coin release. This one is the Jefferson coin, a stately portrait of the first president to enjoy indoor plumbing. The ones I have all say "In God we trust," but Jefferson's really ought to be more noncommittal.

Pool party?

A crazy almost-naked guy tried to get into the White House today. The White House denied that it was Henry Kissinger thinking he was late for a pool party.

Miscellaneous additions

Added a couple pics sent by Stephen B and another of the Ike Oval Office pics.

After John in NOLA sent scans of a Jan 1961 Nat'l Geographic article with well-preserved images, I was able to re-color-correct the Ike-era photos (and one Kennedy-era photo) to more accurately reflect the original colors. The gray-green walls and blue-green carpet are very tricky to get right—especially with source images that are in varying stages of fading and deterioration.

UPDATE: Rare photo of President Marlon Brando and First Lady Audrey Hepburn-Brando welcoming former Governor Ronald Reagan to the White House in the Yellow Oval Room in 1981.

Mentions

Hey, super trivia deep background king Ken Jennings mentioned us. He's looking for portraits of presidents suitable for reproduction. (I know, I know: most first ladies found their husbands suitable for reproduction. He already thought of that joke. He has a brain the size of Andrew Jackson's cheese wheel.)

The WaPo also mentioned us, in regard to the movies and TV page.

And the AP references the Queen's Bedroom page.

Happy Independence Day

Today--more or less--marks the first anniversary of the White House Museum grand opening. There was a "soft opening" in June, but that was mainly to make sure the pH balance in the fountain was right and the security system was working. Over time, we've overcome the serious setback of being robbed by Danny Ocean and are ready for what the next year brings.

Open post: The queen of England arrives

The White House will welcome Queen Elizabeth II—or, as President Bush calls her, Lizzy Deuce*—on Sunday for a state dinner. Prior to that she will have visited:

• Historic Jamestown—which, she may be surprised to discover, has changed very little since her last visit
• The Kentucky Derby—where her hat, while fancy, is unlikely to be the fanciest
  
• Wrestlemania Revenge in the Roanoke Civic Center**

On her way out, she plans to stop in Canada and pick up one of those 1 million dollar coins with her picture on it.***

* I totally made that up.
** Ibid.
*** Ibid.

No foolin'

Changed the front page to one of JBK's 1962 bedroom, with the twin mattresses belted together. If only the SelectComfort Sleep Number bed had been available—a 1 for Jackie and a 99 for Jack. As it was, Jack's side was stuffed with horsehair and Soviet communiques and topped with a slab of concrete. Jackie's side was stuffed with the softest angora from 300 bunnies, kept in suspension by circulating air breathed by a chorus of Catholic choir boys singing "Ave Maria." No foolin'.

Open post: What this country needs....

After an e-mail exchange on the subject of Tade Styka's equestrian portrait of TR in the Roosevelt Room, it occurred to me that what this country needs is a dollar coin with TR's portrait. Was there ever a face better suited to the obverse of hard specie? I ask you, what face has this nation chosen to chisel in stone 60 feet high and yet not mounted on a minted round? And don't tell me he's already on the reverse of the South Dakota quarter. Theodore Roosevelt should not have to appear in the company of a ring-necked pheasant!

I know that he'll get his moment in a few years, but he'll be lumped in with McKinley, Taft, and Wilson, for pity's sake. Maybe TR's could be a two dollar coin. The man needs his own denomination! And for the reverse? A bull moose whacking a Spaniard with a big stick.

Kennedy bedrooms

The Ike's Lair discussion prompted John in NOLA to pass along two photos from the Kennedy archives that show Junior's mantel and Jackie's mantel (see What's New) but don't help solve the mystery. (But they're nice, John; really they are.) Conspiracy theorists now suggest that Ike had a room in his library made to look a lot like the White House a family residence room but not exactly like one.

Dispatch from Fort Necessity

Lousy connectivity from the Doubletree in Pittsburgh this week is making it difficult to do any kind of online activity. Nevertheless, I managed to just acquire this fine miniature of the White House from the Danbury Mint via Ebay.

I already have the 5-inch version, which is considerably less detailed and accurate. This one is the 9-inch version and much better all around. I also recently acquired a 1950s-era plastic model that is quite accurate, altho it seems to have the 1917 roof.

New White House web site look

The official White House site changed its look today. The pastel blue and chromed silver design appears to be a cross between a child daycare service and Boeing Aircraft.

Wingnut's dream

As mentioned in the Lincoln post comments, Wingnut dreamed he got a chance to walk the halls of the White House and see all the nooks and crannies... but forgot his camera. That kicked off a series of others' "dreams" for the White House. Mine is less about decor and more about architecture:

Turn the second floor small bedroom hall and entries into vestibules and their bathrooms into walk-in closets. Turn part of the north Closet Hall into a fenestrated bath for the east bedroom and the Beauty Salon into a fenestrated bath for the west bedroom. The vestibules create a space for a table and chair, where servants could pick up and leave trays and the occupants could drop bags, shoes, and coats. It turns hall space into closet space. And it gives me a chance to use the term "fenestrated." I imagine plumbing over the Entrance Hall would be a pain, but I'm dreaming....

The official 2007 museum director portrait

Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed a new photo of me on the blog profile and the About page of the WHM that looks less like a self-portrait of a photography enthusiast taken in a mirror. I think it compares favorably with the one of Clinton looking like he had a little Captain in him.

Aside to John: I know how you like furniture, so before you ask--Yes, that's a genuine 2005 Flexsteel "C5365" armchair covered in teal velveteen. Only the finest for Diamond VIP members at the Pittsburgh Doubletree.