31 forced facts!
During my sabbatical, I doodled every day. Each week, I celebrated First Lady Fridays — a thing I made up to force myself to practice drawing in a program I was trying to learn. I’ve gotten a little lax lately, so I’m using illustrator Chris Piascik’s October drawing challenge (#mystinkytober23) to get back into it. (Check out his full calendar of prompts.)
My goals are threefold:
Doodle every day
Play around in Fresco more
Cram a bit of presidential trivia into each prompt
Here we go!
DAY 1 PROMPT: POULTRY-GEIST
Richard Nixon (aka Tricky Dick) was dubbed Richard the Chicken-Hearted by Hubert Humphrey.
Nixon masks were a popular Halloween costume.
Nixon Chicken was popular in the 70s. Maybe it was daughter Julie Nixon’s recipe. Or maybe Pat’s recipe. Who knows. Point is, there was a popular chicken recipe that ties into this prompt. It sounds horrifying, which also ties into this Halloween theme.
DAY 2 PROMPT: RAD SKULL
In 1830, a drunk and disgruntled former Mount Vernon gardener broke into George Washington’s crypt and stole Washington’s skull. Except it wasn’t George Washington. It was a nephew-in-law. Moral of the story: stay sober when stealing skulls! Or, you know, avoid grave-robbing. That’s probably actually the moral.
DAY 3 PROMPT: POSSESSED PIZZA
Using utensils to eat pizza has brought negative attention to presidential candidates. Although at least one may have picked up the knife and fork just to get attention.
DAY 4 PROMPT: SCAREDY CAT
New York Governor William Tryon thought George Washington and the Patriots were after him (they weren’t) so he hid out on a boat. Protected by a gigantic British warship.
(Confession: I wrote him off completely as a chicken. But before he hid out on a boat, he was a military officer. And after he hid out on the boat, he became one again.)
DAY 5 PROMPT: LOGO FOR FAKE BAND
Calvin Coolidge’s vice president, Charles G. Dawes wrote a #1 pop hit. Yeah, that’s right. He didn’t live to see (well, hear) it happen, but his piece “Melody in A Major” was renamed “It’s All in the Game”, lyrics were added, and it hit #1 on the Billboard. It’s been covered by many other notable artists. I encourage you to read more about it. Or discover which version is your favorite. (I’ve listened to several, but I think Tommy Edwards’ version is the best.)
Dawes is the lone person in the middle of the unlikely Venn diagram of Vice President, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, descendant of a Revolutionary War hero, and Billboard chart-topper.
I dubbed his fake band Hell & Maria due to an outburst he had when testifying about the cost of mules during World War I: “Hell and Maria, I’d have paid horse prices for sheep, if the sheep could have pulled artillery to the front!” (He insisted he said “Helen Maria,” but that’s not nearly as cool of a band name. Plus, I’m not sure anyone believed him.)
PS Believe it or not, Dawes’ song popped up in a sci-fi book I’m reading that’s set in the year 2045. The Carmel version, from the She’s Having a Baby soundtrack. I love when weird stuff like that happens.
DAY 6 PROMPT: SCRIBBLE DOODLE
This one was more challenging than I expected. In any case, I crammed in: Emily Spinach (Alice Roosevelt Longworth’s snake), Abraham Lincoln, William Howard Taft, October birthday boys Theodore Roosevelt and John Adams, FDR and his bow tie, a doodle inspired by a doodle of LBJ’s, a trout that made me think of the time the folks in South Dakota fed their trout horse meat and liver so they would be easier for President Coolidge to catch, Barack Obama surfing, and General Washington in a tricorn hat.
DAY 7 PROMPT: SPONGESLOB DIRTY PANTS
Martin Van Buren dressed like a slob the first day of his apprenticeship. He was on the receiving end of a lecture about the importance dressing well. From then on, the "bald-headed but whiskered little gentleman dressed in the extreme of fashion."
DAY 8 PROMPT: WEIRD QUOTE OR SAYING
In pursuit of his first wife Alice had "brought about a change in my ideas as regards science." Theodore Roosevelt claimed "As you know, I don't approve of too much slaughter." I imagine maybe he was hiding his guns and taxidermy tools behind his back at the time.
(For more on his complicated relationship with nature, listen to this incredible TR vs. Nature podcast episode.)
DAY 9 PROMPT: GHOSTS
I'm sure we've all heard about Lincoln haunting the White House. But there are many other reports of ghosts — including William Henry Harrison, the first of only two presidents to die in the White House. You can find him haunting the attic.
DAY 10 PROMPT: BAD GUY
Spiro Agnew was Richard Nixon’s super-corrupt vice president. Before Nixon could be ousted from office, Agnew had to go. (For more on this guy, listen to the Bag Man podcast.)
NOTE: I swear I didn’t plan this and my mind is a little blown, but Agnew resigned on October 10, 1973 — 50 years to the date before I posted this doodle.
DAY 11 PROMPT: DRAW ON A PHOTO
Martin Van Buren and Washington Irving (author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) were roommates in London. After his presidency, Van Buren bought Lindenwald -- a home previously owned by Washington Irving. 🎃🔥
DAY 12 PROMPT: BAT
I found the perfect presidential fact for today, involving Millard Fillmore and a quest for guano (poop). Disappointingly, the guano he wanted to "employ all the means properly in its power" to obtain was seabird poop. Shit. In any case… Biden vetoed some bills recently that would have stripped the endangered northern long-eared bats of protection.
DAY 13 PROMPT: DONUT FRIEND
The story goes that JFK proclaimed he was a jelly donut to thousands in Germany. He didn't. But I needed a "donut friend" for today, so here we are. It’s actually kind of interesting how not true this story is.
DAY 14 PROMPT: STUPID TATTOO
Ignore the "stupid" part. But I searched my notes for "tattoo" and saw that K. Jack Bauer wrote "As a result, [Zachary] Taylor closed the camp each night after tattoo" ... meaning taps. I had to use the dictionary a lot with this biography. And even do some unnecessary math, which I found offensive.
I had a few other ideas for this one, but didn't love them. I could have gone with the gunpowder tattoo Theodore Roosevelt accidentally inflicted on himself when he was a teenager. But that probably meant drawing hands and that's too scary for me.
DAY 15 PROMPT: SNAKE
I almost went with Emily Spinach, Alice Roosevelt Longworth's snake. But then I stumbled on a doodle from when John Quincy Adams visited Millard Fillmore in Buffalo. Adams believed the ambitious Freemasons to be a "boa constrictor" hungry for power.
DAY 16 PROMPT: MONSTER
John Calhoun served under both JQA and Andrew Jackson. He was the first VP to resign (one of only two). And he was terrifying-looking, which I don't feel bad saying because he was ugly inside, too.
DAY 17 PROMPT: TRICK
Confession: I didn't finish today's drawing. My file decided to trick me and crash repeatedly until I decided it was taking too long and the drawing was crappy anyhow.
In any case, LBJ would *trick* visitors to his ranch, pretending his breaks failed and then drive into the water. His car was amphibious, but his guests didn't know that.
DAY 18 PROMPT: SAD SKULL
"I started my career as a zoologist," Theodore Roosevelt said. He collected animals and animal specimens as a young boy. This is supposed to be the skull of a cougar he killed in 1901.
DAY 19 PROMPT: TREAT
William Howard Taft loved pumpkin pie.
DAY 20 PROMPT: SOMETHING FROM A SONG
William Henry Harrison and John Tyler had a campaign song! It’s incredible. They Might Be Giants perform it. Just listen. The campaign had some big balls.
PS Leslie Knope visits the ball in season 7 of Parks and Rec (episode 3). Freaking hysterical.
DAY 21 PROMPT: SHARP
First Lady Nellie Taft decided she wanted all men working in the White House to be clean-shaven. (This edict didn't seem to apply to one man working in the White House... )
DAY 22 PROMPT: JUST DO WHATEVER YOU WANT
Rumor has it that you can hear Thomas Jefferson playing his violin in the White House.
DAY 23 PROMPT: BAD CANDY
Ronald Reagan started eating jelly beans to stop pipe smoking. His favorite flavor was licorice.
DAY 24 PROMPT: FOOD FRIEND
Chester Arthur thought eel was deelicious. And fancy.
DAY 25 PROMPT: A RACOON (BC THEY LOOK LIKE THEY ARE IN COSTUME)
First lady Grace Coolidge had a pet raccoon named Rebecca.
DAY 26 PROMPT: A COOLER MONSTER (THAN THE LAST ONE)
There was a terrible heat wave in 1896 in NYC. 1,300 were killed. This monster is Charles Morse, an ice baron (and monster!). He consolidated a bunch of smaller ice companies into a big huge ice company... then jacked up the price of ice so only the rich could afford it. (He even charged the poor more than the rich. Like I said. Monster.)
In steps none other than Theodore Roosevelt, police commissioner of the city, who gives away free ice to the poorest.
Now, you’re just going to have to read the two articles I linked to yourself because A. I’m oversimplifying everything and B. they are jam-packed with “holy crap” doozies. Like the fact that when Morse went to prison, he met and gave business advice to Charles Ponzi. Yeah. That Charles Ponzi, who at the time was in prison for smuggling Italian immigrants into the country. (Side side tangent: Governor Calvin Coolidge ordered Ponzi investigated for his… Ponzi schemes.)
DAY 27 PROMPT: MAKE A PUNDERFUL PICTURE
Apparently, Daniel Webster made bad puns. I dug around quickly, but wasn't able to find any. He did say of the vice presidency "I do not propose to be buried until I'm dead and in my coffin." As far as I know, he did not add "it would be a grave mistake."
Nevertheless, the vice presidency would not have been a dead end for Webster. He passed on William Henry Harrison, who kicked the bucket a month into the job. And then again with Zachary Taylor, who lasted less than two years. Oh well... you live, you learn.
DAY 28 PROMPT: SKATE RAT!
Benedict Arnold was a rat. George Washington seriously considered a sneak attack using soldiers on ice skates. I don't think Benedict Arnold was among those who would have donned the skates, but I wasn't about to let that stand in my way.
DAY 29 PROMPT: HALLOWEENIE
FDR hosted the very first ever visit of a reigning British monarch to the U.S. Roosevelt's mother was aghast that King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were served hot dogs. (Hot dog diplomacy!) 🌭
DAY 30 PROMPT: HALLOWEEN JUMBLE
Betty Ford dressed up a skeleton and put it in President Ford’s chair.
Dang it. Some first kid had a Halloween-themed birthday party … complete with pumpkin carving. But now I can’t remember who.
Theodore Roosevelt’s grave is shockingly understated.
There was a rumor that Andrew Johnson reduced the sentence of a convicted vampire.
After Andrew Jackson was pronounced dead, he opened his eyes. Then died for real a bit later.
DAY 31 PROMPT: TRICK OR TREAT
Jackie Kennedy once dressed up in a garment bag in an attempt to bring her kids trick or treating with some anonymity and normalcy. Once people spotted the secret service agents, her cover was blown.
PS I jumped on a few Grover Cleveland Art Society #Grovtober prompts, too:
