Just finished reading: Same Bed Different Dreams

I just finished reading Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park. This is a first for me. It’s fiction and yet here we are… writing and doodling about it. It’s not my fault! There were so many presidential cameos and references to things that actually happened that I’ve already doodled about that I really didn’t have a choice, now did I?

This book was unlike anything I’ve ever read before … a whirlwind of fiction and non-fiction. It made me realize that I know nothing about the history of Korea or the Korean War. I’m going to fix that at some point soon.

if you haven’t read this book yet, don’t worry. There are no spoilers here.

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Take a quick flip through my sketchbook

(It’s only five pages this time!)

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WIlliam McKinley

After he was shot, McKinley asked that no one hurt his assassin, Leon Czolgosz. He also cautioned his secretary, George Bruce Cortelyo, to be careful when he told his frail wife, Ida.

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Ida McKinley

Ida wasn’t always frail. In fact, she was kind of badass when they met.

She was educated in a way that was “more practical than ornamental,” worked as a bank branch manager, was mischievous, lively, outgoing, professional, driven, and lively. And far more beautiful than my doodle.
When they first met, McKinley was “struck by what he saw — first, her somewhat unladylike zest in devouring her chicken on waffles; then, her beauty, charm, and piquant personality.”
Tragedy struck over and over, starting with the death of her boyfriend (before she met McKinley). She and McKinley married. Their baby Katie was born. Then Ida learned that her mother/best friend was dying. Her mom died. Their baby Ida was born. Five months later, baby Ida died. Then Ida had a serious accident and injured her spine. She’d loved exercise, but the injury meant she had to give up many of her hobbies. She developed epilepsy. Then their four-year-old daughter Katie died. Ida became serious, sickly, withdrawn, and dependent.
Oh, and then her husband was assassinated.

President McKinley: Architect of the American Century, by Robert W. Merry

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Barbara Bush

Barbara Bush on rival V.P. nominee Geraldine Ferraro: “That four-million-dollar-I can’t say it, but it rhymes with rich.”

First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies, by Kate Andersen Brower

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Grover Cleveland

When younger, Cleveland decided to move to Ohio, stopping halfway in Buffalo. His uncle Lewis F. Allen was A Big Deal in Buffalo and a huge influence on Cleveland’s life…changing the trajectory and helping him land a job.

William Williams needed Cleveland on the ticket for Sheriff to help him re-snag a spot in the House. (William Williams, not to be confused with Dr. William Williams Keen, is one of three people in this post who are also in my compendium of funny names.)

Cleveland served as sheriff (personally executing two murderers while in the role!).
At 44 years old, Big Steve (Grover Cleveland) was All Done With Politics. Yet within three years, he went mayor of Buffalo, to Governor of New York, to President of the United States.

Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character, by Alyn Brodsky

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Woodrow & Jessie Wilson

Woodrow Wilson’s daughter Jessie was a political activist and a big supporter of women’s suffrage. “You have the vote, but there is only one of you and there our four of us, and we are underrepresented” she told her father.

Dr. William WIlliams Keen (another double name!) happened to treat a good many of the people mentioned in this book. He met William Howard Taft when Taft was governor-general of the Philippines. He performed surgery on WIlliam McKinley’s wife Ida. He treated Taft’s daughter. And he operated on Woodrow Wilson’s wife and two of his daughters. I’m not sure if Jessie was one of the daughters or not. Not included in the doodle below: Dr. Keen diagnosed FDR, too.

Or should I say, misdiagnosed.

The President Is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman, by Matthew Algeo

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Arthur & Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur’s father was Arthur MacArthur (former Governor-General of the Philippines and the third and final double name in this post). Describing his boss, General Otis, the elder MacArthur said “A locomotive bottom-side up on the tracks with the wheels revolving at full speed.” (In the words of biographer Robert Merry: “always in motion, he seldom moved forward.”)

CONFESSION: I’d heard “corn cob pipe” before. (“A corn cob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of coal.” Obviously.) I don’t think I gave it any more thought though or realized that the pipe is actually made out of a corn cob! The giant pipe the younger MacArthur always had clamped in his mouth? Made out of a corn cob!

The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back, by Shannon McKenna Schmidt

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Robert E. Lee, John F. Kennedy, and Martha Washington

Did you know that the military confiscated Robert E. Lee’s house and 1,100 acres at the beginning of the Civil War and that’s where Arlington National Cemetery is? His house overlooks JFK, Jackie, and two of their children.

Also, Robert E. Lee’s wife was Martha Washington’s great-granddaughter.

Presidential Grave Hunter: One Kid's Quest to Visit the Tombs of Every President and Vice President, by Kurt Deion

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Alexander Haig

Every time this guy pops up, he seems like a complete a$$hole. It’s always a bit part in a larger story, so maybe I’m just not getting the full picture.

But then again, I remember the time when Nixon was trying to dump Spiro Agnew. Blah blah blah my doodle is light on details but General Haig got George Bush to strong arm Maryland’s District Attorney George Beall through his big brother Senator Glenn Beall. Yeah, George H.W. Bush. When he was Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Back before he needed the H.W., before he was head of the CIA or VP or president.

That one.

Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House, by Rachel Maddow (Author) Michael Yarvitz. Gotta love that a real solution to getting rid of a crook was to put him on the Supreme Court.

The scene in Same Bed Different Dreams is Classic Haig. After Reagan was shot, he announced he was “in control.” Spoiler: he was not. There were several people ahead of him in the line up.

I’ll tell you what though. He was a handsome young man. Far more handsome than my crappy doodle. Not quite as handsome as young Rutherford B. Hayes, but still.

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Benjamin Franklin Pierce

I flagged the reference to Benjamin Franklin Pierce because Franklin Pierce had a son named Benjamin. I have no idea if Benjamin’s middle name was Franklin, but it’s not a far-fetched idea. (It’s such a tragic story. I’m going to spare you from it. If and only if you want to read it, click below. Also, do not click below.)

Jane and Franklin Pierce had already lost two sons (one as a baby and one at four years old). After Pierce was elected president, they were traveling to a funeral with their 11-year-old son Benjamin. (The funeral of Jane’s dear uncle, who doted on Benjamin.) The train derailed and Benjamin was nearly decapitated.
One biography I read said that both parents witnessed the horrific tragedy. Another said that Pierce was able to shield his wife from it.
Understandably devastated, Jane missed both her son’s funeral and her husband’s inauguration.
I told you not to click on this!

Benjamin Franklin Pierce was not that 11-year-old boy. But the story has a horrifying element to it, too. Click below for more.

Benjamin Franklin Pierce was better known as Hawkeye Pierce, the chief surgeon on M*A*S*H. I went ahead and rewatched a few scenes. I regret my decision.
If I was a monster, I’d give you the links here.
I’m not a monster. Also, I distinctly remember telling you not click on this.

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Sister of Rutherford B. Hayes

“It’s like asking the average American about the sister of Rutherford B. Hayes,” Sang says in the book. Damn. I wish I had a doodle about Rutherford B. Hayes’ sister. I have doodles about Grover Cleveland’s sister!

Instead, I’ll share a doodle about Rutherford B. Hayes’ cousin.

Robert Mills (not Hayes’ cousin) began work on the Washington Monument in 1848 but stopped in 1855 (at 152 feet) because he died. For the next two decades, people made fun of the design. Engineers worried about stability. There was difficulty financing the project. Other designs were considered, including a proposal by Rutherford B. Hayes’ cousin: a giant bronze statue of George Washington.
Interested in a second fact about a cousin of Rutherford B. Hayes? I assume this is a different one, but I didn’t verify. His cousin John Humphrey Noyes practiced “complex marriage” … all of the men in the community were married to all of the women. Not too long after, the “promiscuous adulterers” left Vermont and founded the Oneida Company in New York.

I zipped through this doodle because I was in a hurry to get to my next book. Full disclosure: the next biography was about Franklin Pierce. That doughface wasn’t worth rushing to.

Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior & President, by Ari Hoogenboom

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Ronald Reagan

Ronald, Wilson, and Reagan each have 6 letters. Protesters outside the White House pointed out that the letters can be arranged into Insane Anglo Warlord. After his presidency, the Reagans lived at 668 Saint Cloud. The original house number was 666, but they had it changed.

The President Is Dead!: The Extraordinary Stories of Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond, by Louis L. Picone

Reagan lost more than half his blood when he was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. He still joked “Please tell me you’re Republicans” to the surgeons.

Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan, by Edmund Morris (Calling it a memoir is a bit of a stretch.)

FUN FACT! His Secret Service agent, Jerry Parr, was inspired to become an agent after seeing Reagan in a movie when he was 9 years old. (“The worst movie. I have never seen it to this day,” according to Reagan.) Parr shoved Reagan into the limo to head to the White House, but rerouted to the hospital when he noticed The Gipper coughing up blood… saving the life of the guy who inspired his career!

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Schenectady

I love Schenectady references. This time, it was about Ronald Reagan/General Electric, but two other presidents mentioned in his book also have a connection. Jimmy Carter lived in Schenectady a bit and Rutherford B. Hayes visited as a kid.

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Hawaii

Ahhh… Hawaii. When the North lost access to Southern sugar during the Civil War, they started replacing taro with cane fields in Hawaii. The history is messy and confusing and cringy. Here’s just a couple of examples:

The white plantation owners/missionaries traced down a copy of Mississippi’s constitution so they could level up on ways to prevent Hawaiians from voting.
In 1876, the bulk of the population was Hawaiian. To keep up with the sugar demand, the white guys started bringing in workers from all over: Japan, China, Portugal, Korea, and the Philippines. By 1900, 57% of the population was from Asia. “Keep a variety of laborers,” advised a random plantation owner. Because with so many languages, the workers can’t rise up together and strike!

Gross.

And PS: while Queen Lili'uokalani was at Queen VIctoria’s Jubilee, her brother was experiencing “the overthrow of the monarchy.”

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I love coincidences!

I read Same Bed Different Dreams at the same time as Becoming Queen VIctoria and noticed they both have the same gorgeous green on one side and a darker color on the other. It made me smile to see them stacked, slightly askew.
I’ve never heard of “issues” (offspring) until Becoming Queen Victoria, and it popped up the other book, too.
There’s a reference to Victoriaville. Three guesses who that’s named after! (And, yes, I noticed Victoriaville is missing an a. If you’re here for proper grammar and precision, you are in the wrong place.)

I’d also like to point out:

Queen Victoria thought Millard Fillmore was “the most handsome man.” (He was Alec Baldwin’s doppelgänger. But a trash president.)
Fillmore was a Buffalo fan boy, believing that “Buffalo in the progress of history is destined by its position to be what Alexandria and Venice were.”

Bonus fun fact: Fillmore was married in the same room as Alexander Hamilton (not at the same time). Alexander Hamilton was one of the guys trying to overthrow King George III… Queen Victoria’s grandfather.