What the hell is a prothonotary?!
ISSUE NO. 30 // TRUMAN QUOTES
Happy New Year!
When I put out a call for collaborators a couple of months ago, I wasn’t sure if I’d get any bites. The response blew me away and I have some fun collaborations planned for this year. I’m pretty chill,* so I definitely didn’t squeal** when my first two guests reached out.
First up is author and journalist Matthew Algeo. I have The Grover Cleveland Art Appreciation Society to thank for getting me hooked on his books.*** It was a blast doodling my way through two of his books and I’m starting on a third soon.
Let’s get the hell on with this newsletter…
Presidential Doodler
*Not chill at all.
**I totally did.
***Is anybody watching The Artful Dodger? If so, I’ve been toying with pulling together a post with things I’ve learned along my presidential journey that deepened my appreciation for the show... including but not limited to the medical stuff I learned in Algeo’s The President Is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth.
Some Truman quotes (you won't find in his official Public Papers)
In retirement, Truman would take long morning walks around his neighborhood in Independence, Mo., and he would regularly stop to talk to a giant ginkgo tree on Maple Street. What did he say to it? “You’re doing a good job.”
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Stopping at a gas station in Frederick, Md., for a fill-up and a Coke on a sizzling summer day in 1953, the station’s owner, a Democrat, asked Truman to give his mechanic hell for being a Republican. “Na,” said Truman, “it’s too hot to give anybody hell.”
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Shown a picture of Yasuo Kuniyoshi’s modernist painting “Circus Girl Resting,” which depicts a voluptuous and scantily-clad performer, Truman declared, “I’ve been to a million circuses and I’ve never seen a performer who looked like her!”
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Although he hated modern art – he called it “ham and eggs art” – Truman did not pass up an opportunity to meet Pablo Picasso when visiting France in 1958. Surprisingly, the two men hit it off. Afterwards Truman said of Picasso, “I liked him a lot!”
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Asked to autograph a picture that showed him with Hoover, Nixon, and Eisenhower at Eisenhower’s first inaugural, Truman refused. He said, “I wouldn’t sign a picture with that son-of-a-bitch Nixon in it!” Then he cocked his fist as if to throw a punch. “This is what I’d like to do to him!”
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“Prothonotary” is Pennsylvania’s fancy term for a court clerk. When Truman was introduced to a prothonotary on a campaign stop in Pittsburgh in 1948, his reaction was: “What the hell is a prothonotary?!”’
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Matthew Algeo writes about interesting stuff.
Or, as his mom liked to say, Matthew is an award-winning journalist and author. His latest book is When Harry Met Pablo: Truman, Picasso, and the Cold War Politics of Modern Art.
He is the author of six other books, including Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip, which was named one of the best books of 2009 by the Washington Post.
In addition to reporting and writing, Matthew has held jobs as a convenience store clerk, a gas station attendant, a Halloween costume salesman, and a proofreader. He also worked in a traveling circus (as a hot dog vendor; no acrobatics involved).
Matthew holds a degree in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania.
His wife, Allyson, is a United States Foreign Service officer. They have lived in Bamako, Rome, Ulan Bator, Maputo, and Sarajevo. They currently live in Virginia with their ten-year-old daughter Zaya.
Find Matthew on Instagram/Threads @matthewalgeo or at malgeo.net.
This doodle— minus the warbler — was inspired by The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War by Catherine Grace Katz.
Postscripts
Speaking of prothonotary…
Two months after Truman exclaimed “What the hell is a prothonotary?!”, the Prothonotary Warbler helped send former state department official Alger Hiss to jail…. Guess who was involved with the trial and received a big boost in popularity? That son-of-a-bitch squirrel head, Richard Nixon.
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About that eggs and ham doodle…
Truman made his comment in the 40s and didn’t mentioned the color of the ham or the eggs. Dr. Suess’s Green Eggs and Ham was published in 1960 and has nothing to do with Truman, but I couldn’t resist.
DID YOU KNOW?
POTUS Notice emails are repurposed as blog posts… but without some of the fun stuff (like recommendations and quizzes). The past two months, subscribers had a chance to win Matthew Algeo’s new book, When Harry Met Pablo: Truman, Picasso, and the Cold War Politics of Modern Art.
Don’t want to miss out? Subscribe to The POTUS Notice.
Follow along on Instagram for more doodles and presidential trivia.
