AboutComics.com recently released an expanded edition of
Cold-War Coloring: Political Adult Coloring Books of the Kennedy Era, and WU played a small part in its creation.
The book collects together politically-themed, satirical coloring books of the 1960s. Such as the
JFK Coloring Book and
Khrushchev’s Top Secret Coloring Book.
For the expanded edition the editor, Nat Gertler, wanted to include the
Sing along with Khrushchov coloring book, published in 1962. However, he couldn't find a copy of it. There were no copies in libraries and none for sale.
Then he discovered that we here at WU
happened to have posted a scanned copy of it online back in 2020. I tried to connect him with the reader who had sent us the scanned copy, so that he could get a higher-quality version of the pdf, but no luck there. But thankfully Nat was able to make do with the copy we had. So now this obscure title is once again in print.
Glad we were able to help prevent it from being lost forever.
The election season heats up!
Over in Denmark, an AI chatbot called Leader Lars is a candidate in the country's November general election. It's the representative of
The Synthetic Party. Apparently this is the first time a form of artificial intelligence has run for political office. (It would be too easy to make a joke about whether any form of genuine intelligence has ever run for office, so I won't do it).
You can chat with Leader Lars and ask it questions in English. However, it responds in Danish.
More info:
vice.com
Want to empty out the dance floor? Just pop this on the turntable.
Player embedded below.
The U.S Congress has some unusual traditions, one of which is that the U.S. House of Representatives Restaurant always has bean soup on the menu.
Details from the Congressional Archives:
A common item in the U.S. House of Representatives even before the turn of the 20th century, bean soup became a permanent fixture in the institution when Speaker Joe Cannon of Illinois discovered that his favorite meal had not been prepared by the kitchen staff on a hot, summer day in 1904. Dismayed by the omission, the Speaker directed that bean soup be served in the House every day, regardless of the weather. More than a century after Speaker Cannon’s decree, bean soup remains on the menu in the House Restaurant, making it one of the more longstanding and famous traditions in the House.
Back page of the 1955 House Restaurant Menu
John Francis Kennedy served three terms as Treasurer of Massachusetts, from 1954 to 1960. He was legendary for putting almost no effort (or money) into campaigning. He made no speeches, nor did he advertise. He didn't even have any relevant experience for the job. Before becoming state treasurer he had been a stockroom supervisor at the Gillette Safety Razor Company.
By all accounts, the only reason for his political success was the resemblance of his name to John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
John Francis Kennedy probably would have kept running for state treasurer if he could have. But term limits prevented him. He tried running for governor in 1960 (while JFK was campaigning for President), but his winning streak finally ended.
More info:
Commonwealth magazine,
Our Campaigns
John Francis Kennedy
Miami News - May 22, 1960