Comedy Central is channel 68, Mr. President

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In the previous post’s comments, visitor Rod pointed out that the White House has a high-res photostream on Flickr. It includes a fantastic photo of the president’s private Oval Office study, wherein you can see the staff has conveniently provided the president with a hotel-style channel legend. Man, those guys think of everything. Thanks Rod and also Colton! And thanks, White House Photo Office!

UPDATE: I’ve been all thru the photostream now. Phew! What a trove! Check the What’s New page tomorrow morning!

10 thoughts on “Comedy Central is channel 68, Mr. President”

  2. Jordan, thank you for sharing that photo. I just looked at the Private Study near the oval office page, along with the dining room page and noticed something. The private study page, the last pics show the OO door to the hall open and shows the door ways of the private study and the pantry. That photo is from around 1961. If you look at more recent photos, again on the private study, such as Cheney walking in that hall way, there is no door on the right hand side wall except for the presidents lavatory, not for a pantry. Go to the dining room page, there are two pics that show the door to the pantry is from the dining room itself. Those pics are of GWB in the room with Tom Daschle and the other with Condi rice, and the Israeli Prime Minister. Both pics, the door is all the way open, or open part way, and if you look at the wall in the hall way, you can see there is no door along the one wall, just the door for the private study. Even the pic of Reagan and then VP George H. W. Bush has the door open, and no door for a pantry along the wall in that hall way. Look closely to the left and you can see the door way to the pantry from the dining room. Since 61, some work was done where they removed that door.

  3. Good eyes, Steve. This has come up before also. Originally, today’s study was FDR narrow lavatory, but it was later expanded to become a study, while what had been a pantry became a tiny lavatory, and a pantry was added beside it in the expanded corridor. Then the doors got changed around, and the pantry got moved to a space to the right of the fire place in the dining room. I’m still not sure of the dates and details myself (and my FDR-Truman floor plans have it labeled wrong).

    There are some great new pics of the study now, but none that show the lavatory or pantry more clearly.

  4. Thanks for the info Derek, a lot of work for sure was done during FDR’s time to the West Wing. On the floor plan of the first floor for the WW, across the hall from the private study, we see what might be a room, is that a room, and if so, what? Looking at the pics of the dining room with the floor plan, where the door is for the pantry, it makes me wonder is there a room to the right of the pantry…? Some how it would be nice to lable those rooms on the floor plan, but it be tough. Oh yeah and Commedy Central Mr. President…that’s not bad, but its gota be ESPN is channel ___ Mr. President! =) lol, sry I had to put that in there.

  5. Regarding pantry and lavatory question, I have found a map of the West Wing that was published in the Starr Report (1998). You can find it here:

    http://www.cnn.com/icreport/report/volume2/volume2100.html

    It clearly shows that there indeed is an extra room next to the bathroom, which can be accessed only from the outside, from the area between the Oval Office and Roosevelt Room. There is no indication what the function of that small room actually is. The pantry is next to it, marked by the small letter P and the arrow.

  8. Mark, Jordan, and Rod, thanks for sharing the photos. I got a laugh at the photo Rod posted, the guy sitting in that chair… he either knew that was the Presidents chair and wanted to feel powerfull or just be disrespectfull, and if he didn’t know that was the President’s chair, then he was never taught that you don’t sit in the chair that has the higher back unless your the President. I took a look at the Situation Room page and I must be blind not to notice it before… Look at the main first pic of the sitroom and the pic of GWB doing a ribbon cutting ceremony. Compare those pics to the 2nd pic after GWB’s ribbon cutting ceremony. Two different rooms. Besides the one big screen, it’s two smaller ones in this other room, but also look at the left wall. There is nothing in between the two screens in the one pic, compared to the others. Not only that, look at the item that has the red & green numbers/letters and see the difference. Can anyone tell which other room this is besides the bigger main confrence room? Also looking at the floor plan for the 1st floor of the WW, what is the other room next to the OO that seems to join with the Presidents Sec. office? Is that just a different part of the office, is it the office for the Dir. of Oval Office Operations (if that position still exists)?

  9. The Outer Oval Office used to be one large room between the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room. Nixon added dividing walls to create a separate windowless office in the southwest corner of the room, and also creating a narrow walkway from the main corridor to the Outer Office.

    In past administrations, the windowless southwest office was occupied by the director of Oval Office Operations.

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