Putting the DOO in DOODLE

ISSUE NO. 4 // ALL ABOUT PRESIDENTIAL NO. 2s 💩

Presidential Doodies

(Get it? Presidential duties?)

Last month’s issue boasted a distinguished and qualified guest. This time, the pendulum is swinging the opposite direction. I mean, what fascinates me most about presidents is that they are regular people. And what’s more regular-people-y than this?

Presidential Doodler

From Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip, by Matthew Algeo. (Loved this book! It’s funny, too.)

Super proud of this crappy animation. I stuck with yellow waste, because the book mentioned it all evaporated before reaching land. I have to assume that was just liquid waste, but this is a history project not a science project. My son and I realized if it was solid waste, it would be “Sacred Cow dung.” Or Sacred Cow patties. Or Sacred Cow pies. We brainstormed on this quite a bit.

The POTUS Notice is so much fun to prepare each month that I’ve gotten lazy with my actual book. (On the flipside, this newsletter has helped me solidify some ideas and experiment a bit. Sooo…. let’s call that productive procrastination and I’ll pat myself on the back.)

But it’s time to get serious! I’m actually working on a real book pitch and plan to submit it to at least one agent or publisher by President’s Day. I’m telling you this so you can keep me honest.

As Nixon said to Eisenhower when Ike was indecisive about whether Nixon should be on his ticket amid controversy:

THE SCOOP ON POOP

Lincoln used to tell the story about Ethan Allen’s visit to England. When he used the outhouse, he discovered an illustration of George Washington hanging up inside it. Allen didn’t say anything about it, but the Brits thought it was hysterical. When asked if he saw it, Allen let them know that the outhouse seemed like a good place for it because there is:

“nothing that will make an Englishman shit so quick as the sight of General Washington.”

5 MORE FUN FACTS ABOUT RANDOM IMMATURE TOPICS:

William Henry Harrison (Old Tippecanoe) had some big balls. (Or maybe just one…?) Towering over the men who pushed it, it rolled from town to town. The 10' ball was covered with slogans like “To guide the ship, Old Tip!” (I swear I’m not making this up.) No longer were elections reserved for the privileged. Now average Americans could take part! We have the Harrison campaign to thank for the expression “keep the ball rolling.”

I’m not sure if Jackson really said this or not. I doodled it while reading The Remarkable Millard Fillmore by George Pendle. Despite the fact that the cover shows Millard Fillmore reading a book on top of a unicorn, I didn’t realize the library had misfiled it under “biography.” It should have been filed under “humor.” In any case, the most preposterous things in the book were actually true. Who knows about this one though. Certainly not me, even though I put in a substantial two minute effort fact-checking it on the internet.

The fish doodle has nothing to do with the theme of this issue. I have two subscribers in Ohio and I’d hate to have either pay the price for not knowing this.

OK, founder. { eyeroll }

I’m getting some crap lately for being so hard on Teddy Roosevelt. Fine. Here are not one, but TWO Teddy Roosevelt doodles. Both are from River of Doubt, by Candice Millard. Fabulous and exhilarating book, chock full of mind-blowing facts about the Amazon. It made me want to draw everything. But it did not change my opinion that TR was a blustering, mustachioed manchild.

If you travel to the Amazon, don’t pee in the river. The candiru make piranha seem like harmless goldfish. (For anyone counting, this is Fish Life Hack #2).

Here he is again. All grumpy because his underpants were gobbled up and everyone is laughing at him.

LAST MONTH’S QUIZ ANSWER:
LBJ used to hold meetings in the can. While he was going to the bathroom. #2.
He also peed on a Secret Service agent who was blocking him from the view of a crowd. Like, peed on him on purpose. Which is fine. Because that was his “prerogative.”

This month’s postcard went out to the curator of the Grover Cleveland Art Appreciation Society — the largest collection of contemporary artworks focused on America’s only non-consecutive president. (Including a couple of other Grovers I doodled!)

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