TV West Wing page

Using a new, more accurate layout by Pete and screen caps from the DVDs, I’ve created a page just for The West Wing‘s version of the West Wing. However, this now creates a weird situation where Pete’s detailed reviews of TWW by season are on the Movies & TV page and the floor plan and photos are on another page. I hesitate to put the detailed reviews on the new page with the floor plan and photos because I’m afraid they’re going to end up quite lengthy once Pete has reviewed a few more seasons.

I’m hoping for some comments that will help solve this dilemma. What would WH enthusiasts prefer and what would TWW enthusiasts prefer?

New museum look

I’ve made changes to the WHM site to make it similar to the blog template. It has the a green-gray textured background instead of parchment textured background, and the main pages have a white center section with scalloped edges instead of being transparent to the parchment background. The room pages have only the background colored.

One Observatory Circle

I was chatting with a friend today about a funny web site, and something about it triggered me to think of another web site to create. I checked domain names and found that domains related to the vice-president’s residence were–to my surprise–available, so I registered:

• Oneobservatorycircle.com
• Oneobservatorycircle.org
• 1observatorycircle.com

I had thought about creating a page or two about the residence of the vice-president–or, as I will now frequently call it, 1OC (official | Wikipedia)–but it had never occurred to me that the actual domain names would be available. The obvious thing now would be to create a site similar to White House Museum, altho there isn’t nearly as much information available about it, nor history (nor interest, for that matter).

I also considered making a satirical web site like Whitehouse.net, that would satirize the vice-president by pretending to be his home page and blog (“Friday: Still missing Rummy,”) but that would take a lot of time and acerbic wit, both of which I need to conserve for Tysto.com [warning: political opinion].

Second and third floor halls

Added a couple of Clinton-era pics from the Echoes from the White House DVD. That video had surprisingly few good broad shots of the rooms, but a couple were quite interesting, including one of the second floor central hall, third floor central hall (finally, in color!), solarium (also color! eww…).

PBR Photographer identified

I got a note from Jeffrey James Bryan Carpenter requesting credit for the terrific photos that illustrate the Press Briefing Room. I don’t recall where those pictures came from, so I never knew who to credit. If any other visitors find uncredited photos of theirs that I’ve used to illustrate the White House, please contact me. I’m very happy to give credit and link the credit to any page you like or to remove them from the site.

New section suggestion

Visitor Dennis has suggested that I create some pages to illustrate the various eras, where the relevant pictures for each era would be gathered. So, for example, there would be a page for Theodore Roosevelt that talks about the McKim renovation and includes the pics of the State Floor rooms and wings of that period.

This meshes well with an idea I’d been kicking around to create a page or pages that describe the changes made by each president. Some presidents (like Carter) didn’t really do anything to the WH, of course, so I think it makes more sense to do it for each major renovation.

New blog template

I’ve changed the blog template to something more stately. The change might be temporary. I’m looking for one where I can easily incorporate a picture of the White House or Oval Office.

Update: I think I’ve settled on this green-gray version. I figured out how to put an image behind the text (the seal from Bush 2’s OO carpet), and I made it match the gray-green background color.

Happy oldest day to Jerry Ford

On Sunday, President Ford became the oldest living person to have been president of the United States: 93 years and 121 days. Ford’s impact on the White House was mainly the installation of an outdoor swimming pool and redecorating the Oval Office with decor that lasted thru Carter and into Reagan’s second term.

A Navy man and a football player in his youth, the president was fit and competitive thru his White House years; his motto was simply “WIN.” Surviving two assassination attempts while president and a devastating wolf attack that many thought would prove fatal, Ford moved to Springfield, USA, across the street from Homer Simpson in the former Bush residence.

Before and after his White House years, he was, by all accounts, an admirable and decent man. Best wishes, Mr. President.

New old pics and Clinton era

Found some more good old-timey photos in the Library of Congress, including some of the Blue Room, State Dining Room, North Portico, and an interesting one of workers digging a trench for steam pipes from the EEOB to White House in 1923. I also added the famous picture of the Harrison children in their goat-drawn cart on the south lawn.

I also added a couple of Clinton-era pics that fill out that period for the Roosevelt Room, Green Room, Yellow Oval Room, and East Sitting Hall, provided by Pete.

New menu navigation

I’ve completed the conversion to the new menu navigation system. Now, all pages have menus that drop from the existing buttons. With this, you can get to any floor in the Residence, East Wing, or West Wing immediately.

You may need to refresh some pages to get the new functionality.

Marine Corps Museum

The US Marine Corps Museum was dedicated today. This is a good model for a real museum of White House history (PowerPoint), I think. I sent a note to the architects asking if they knew of any such effort and including links.

My Congressional representative, Chris Chocola, was defeated on Tuesday and replaced by Joe Donnelly. He doesn’t take office until January, so I’ll plan on sending him my proposal in the next couple of months.

New navigation and menus

I’ve posted new pages for the West Wing and East Wing, breaking out the floors separately from the overview as for the Residence. This is preparation for implementing new menus for each section, as on the test page.

Update: I’ve begun converting the pages to the new menu navigation. So far, all the “top level” pages are converted (intro and floor plans).

Update: All done.

New pics

I kind of hoped that the mid-term elections would prompt the president to host some events that would provide good photos of the Residence (like the YOR or the Treaty Room), but the only interesting thing I’ve seen so far is one of GWB in the President’s Dining Room with Congressional leaders. I did find a couple of neat ones on the Time website, however, including one of the Family Dining Room being prepared for the Karzai-Musharraf dinner and one of a butler in the Cross Hall.

Blog upgrade

I upgraded the weblog to Blogger beta in hopes of finding a smoother interface, but so far it’s kind of awkward and confusing. Please let me know if things are displaying differently or if comments are disabled for anonymous users or anything.

Update: I re-enabled anonymous posting and added the search bar (searches this blog only). Thanks for the comments!

New front page

Changed the front page for the month to one of the Red Room in 1904, a hand-tinted photo by the wonderful Francis Benjamin Johnston.

This will last until early December, when I’ll replace it with a nice, colorful photo showing the White House at Christmastime. I don’t have one prepared yet, so anyone who has a good one, feel free to send me a link to it.

Also changed the Residence second floor back to showing the kitchen spiral staircase extending up into the family kitchen, based on information from a knowledgeable sourse.

Oval Office & the Resolute

I created a separate page for the Resolute desk to get its history off the Oval Office page and so I had space to add some trivia about Truman’s “The Buck Stops Here” motto and Kennedy’s distress-call coconut. I can’t think of anything else that is particularly famous or interesting that has been displayed on the president’s desk, but suggestions are welcome.

More artifacts

Did another search of the LOC and came across a few more pictures I’d overlooked before, including terrific ones of Alice Roosevelt’s bedroom, McKinley’s Blue Room, pre-FDR West Wing, and Wilson’s ridiculous sheep.

More menu experiments

I found what I think is a better menu method for enhancing navigation and experimented with it on a new test page. This keeps my buttons and just adds drop-down menus from them, which looks good and is very slick. I haven’t created separate pages for the wings, so those links go to the Residence right now. It will be a bit easier to implement this code than it would have been to implement the other.

I found the code here.

West Wing and other bits

Got some new information about the layout of the West Wing ground floor and made a couple of minor changes (Homeland Security Council office now occupies the old Barber Shop, for example).

Also, I added a couple of pics of the South Portico, Private Dining Room, Beauty Salon, and third floor Promenade, for which I created a new page.

Thanks to Pete, in both cases!