ISSUE NO. 41 // PUTTING THE "SUPER” IN “SUPERFLUOUS SUPERLATIVES”!

This will raise some eyebrows.

Oh, hi!

In an effort to lighten things up a bit (everythingisalotrightnow), I’ve collected some fabulous eyebrows from my sketchbooks to share. I suspect I will add to this list over time.

Hey, guess what? I’m on Substack now.

True to form, I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m having fun. So far, I’m posting the same content as my website. My POTUS Notice emails won’t overlap with Substack emails, so you could subscribe to both if you were so inclined. Do not feel obligated. Want to take a peek? (Feel free to click “read without subscribing”.)

Thanks for being here.

America’s Preeminent Presidential Doodler

PS I thought this eyebrow idea was so clever and wondered if anyone had done something similar. Someone had, and they’d also wondered if anyone else had. I’m not sticking to presidents here, so I’m counting this as an original idea. (It’s not.) In any case, check out this Hottest Heads of State list. I’m dying about #23.

PPS I’m still playing around on Bluesky a bit. I still don’t know what I’m doing and I still don’t have many friends.

History’s Most [Whatever] Eyebrows*

*Limited to eyebrows in my sketchbooks.

1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, by David Pietrusza

THREE-WAY TIE!

Most fun POTUS eyebrows to draw
Best brows near a brow-related quote
Most inspired brow coverup

Warren G. Harding’s brows are tremendously fun to draw. In this particular doodle, I messed them up the first time. Then I turned them into a turtle to hide my mistake. This isn’t my best Harding doodle, but when I noticed that his bloviating included a brow quote?! Win-win! Win-win-win, actually.

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The Last of the President’s Men, by Bob Woodward

RUNNER UP!

Most fun to draw

Richard Nixon! A point of clarification: he most certainly was exceptionally thin-skinned.

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Most intimidating brows

J.P. Morgan, though maybe I was swayed by the fact that he benefited off the free labor of people locked up for things as not having a job.

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Most high contrast

A shocking white mullet and thick black brows? Only James K. Polk can pull that off.

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Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight, by Julia Sweig

Most recent

Andrew Mellon’s eyebrows showed up in my current book. His son married Bunny Mellon, who I was delighted to add to both my Compendium of Funny Names and my list of 100 Centenarians. She designed the White House rose garden.

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A few of the brows above (including Bierce’s) were from The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power, by Steve Fraser. This book was rich with gargantuan words and impressive eyebrows. See?

Best brows to accentuate sarcasm

Humorist Ambrose Bierce’s eyebrows were pretty fabulous. Also fabulous is that when I looked for a photo of him, I found a novel about him. It has a gorgeous cover (the typography!) and Theodore Roosevelt shows up. Obviously, I’m going to have to read it.

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Most gravity-defying
Most creative
Overall most magnificent

This George Clinton may not have brought on the funk. But his glorious non-traditional eyebrows commanded attention. They couldn’t get him elected POTUS though, despite the lovely synergy with his opposing tidal waves of hair on top of his head.