- Does the Residence of the White House really have a window like that huge half circle thing we saw in "7A WF 83429"?
- "luna azul" posted the following on the Television Without Pity's West Wing forum:
"The WH has two of those semi-circular windows, one on the east end of the building and one on the west. I do believe that Jed was standing at the westward-facing window, which means he was looking directly at the West Wing as he brooded."
This information was also posted on the same forun by "Maris", who said, "I can attest to the window actually existing in the real White House."
And it seems the window has been seen on the show before. Keely1116
posted on the TWoP West Wing forum, "The window's not new. I watched the re-run of "The Midterms" directly afterwards, and when CJ and Leo leave the bedroom while Zoey's asking the Prez if he thinks Charlie's been acting funny, it's right behind them."
- Could Ryan Pierce be decended from Franklin Pierce as Donna says in "The Dogs of War"?
- Leigh Cox emailed us on this: "In the episode last night (October 1, 2003), they introduced a new character, an intern in Joshıs office. His name is Ryan Pierce, and he noted on the program that he was the great-great grandson of Franklin Pierce. This could not be true! President Franklin Pierce and his wife Jane Appleton Pierce had three sons, all of whom passed away in childhood. Therefore, Franklin Pierce had no grandchildren and could not be the great-great grandfather of this character on The West Wing."
- Could Ryan's "great-great-great-granddad" "(apparently
President Franklin Pierce)" have "annexed Cuba" as he says in "Constituency of One"?
- We heard from David Mix Barrington of Usenet group soc.history.what-if, who wrote us "about an apparent major diversion between the West Wing world and our own in the 19th century":
- "In our timeline Pierce was president 1853-7 and did not annex Cuba.
(He was the only president from New Hampshire, and is usually near
the top of historians' lists of our worst presidents since his inaction
helped lead to the Civil War. He also, as is already pointed out on
the site, has no direct descendents in our timeline.)
- "Cuba became independent from Spain and a "de facto" US dependency after the 1898 war, remaining under heavy US influence until 1959."
- But biakbiak posted on the Television Without Pity West Wing forum information on what could have been seen as an attempt to annex Cuba called the Ostend Manifesto: Pierce's Secretary of State, William L. Marcy, directed "United States Ministers to Spain, France and Great Britain to confer among themselves and decide if it was feasible to persuade Spain to sell Cuba to the States, while avoiding dissonances with France and Great Britain....
"The three men came together at Ostend in the summer of 1854, and... proposed to threaten Spain with the invasion of Cuba, if Spain was not willing to sell the island to the States. The document known as the Ostend Manifesto was sent to Mr. Marcy and caused enormous disturbances. The United States Department of State repudiated it completely, Spain refused vehemently to even consider the sale of Cuba. Pierre Soule [minister to Spain] had to resign in December of the same year as a result of his substantial responsibility for this embarrasment of American diplomacy."
- Mike Holbrook of The Morning Show at WRR, Classical 101 wrote us that in the episode "Han", "the piano used in the recital... [i]s a Yamaha. I was suspicious and did some checking. The White House has a 1938 Steinway (presented by Steinway and Sons) that sits on four gilt eagles."
- He sent us the following link to a picture of the East Room and information on the Steinway.
- Is there a Christmas tree in the White House yard and where were the Secret Service agents when Bartlet and Gus went out to the tree --- even inside the White House, Bartlet always has a Secret Service agent following him?
- "luna azul" posted on the Television Without Pity West Wing forum:
"The National Christmas Tree is not on the W[hite] H[ouse] grounds, although it can be seen from the south lawn. POTUS throws the switch to light it from the WH--usually from the Truman Balcony if I remember correctly. The tree is part of the Pageant of Peace, which is open to the public and could not practically serve as the the scene of the cute Jed/Gus moment as shown. But hey--never let the facts get in the way of good storytelling. The White House Christmas Tree is inside the WH."
As for the Secret Service, "teleburst" posted on the Television Without Pity West Wing forum:
"During that last scene, I kept seeing the following:
SS Agent, whispering into his hand: 'Albatross and Spanky on the Portico'.
'Have you got them Eagle Three'?
<schritch>
"'That's a negative. No sign of them'.
<schritch>
"'WHAT? Repeat please'!
<schritch>
"'That's a negative. POTUS not engaged'.
<schritch>
"'Get me Butterfield STAT'!
<Pan to frantic agents running to and fro, talking into their hands>
"'Look over there...why is the Christmas tree flashing'??!!
<scrithch>
"'Don't worry about that now, we MUST find the President'!
"Two days later...
"'This is Jim Cultherberson, CNN White House correspondent. Yes Anderson, I can finally reveal that the President just returned from the South Lawn of the White House, where he ditched Secret Service agents for over 30 minutes during a top secret mission that the White House is characterizing as a child advocacy intervention. I'll have more details later as details become available'."
- Where is there a floor plan of the real West Wing?
- The Washington Post just put up a floorplan of the real West Wing and we were alerted to this by an email from Mary Kolencik. It is a link from this article:
Inside the Real West Wing By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com Wednesday, March 10, 2004; 10:15 AM
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