SOCKS THE CATtm
FAN CLUB NEWSLETTER
ISSUE #16 -- Autumn 1997
© 1997, Presidential SOCKS Partnership, Inc.
703-920-5193 -- fax: 703-521-6157
email: SOCKSTHECAT@WORLDNET.ATT.NET
http://www.oocities.org/CapitolHill/6157
For a free copy of SOCKS THE CAT NEWSLETTER,
please send your name and address and two 32-cent stamps to:
SOCKS THE CAT FAN CLUB, 611 South Ivy Street, Arlington VA 22204-2429
WELCOME TO SOCKS THE CAT FAN CLUB
by SOCKS FAN CLUB President Jay Jacob Wind, Arlington VA
Welcome to SOCKS THE CAT FAN CLUB! Since
the article about us in PARADE Magazine in August, we have grown
dramatically to 5,000 members in 48 states and 10 countries, Australia,
Austria, Canada, China (Hong Kong), France, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore,
US, UK.
We hope you enjoy reading this newsletter.
We cover news about America's First Cat SOCKS, animals, children, politics,
and White House news from a cat's-eye view. Some articles are copyrighted
and used by permission, so please contact us before reprinting. You can
send us articles and letters by US Mail or e-mail us at SOCKSTHECAT@WORLDNET.ATT.NET
We
may reprint any letters and photos you send us.
To join SOCKS THE CAT FAN CLUB, use
the membership application on the last page
of this newsletter. Every member gets a SOCKS FAN CLUB t-shirt, button,
membership card, and the next newsletter; above that, you can choose many
other SOCKS FAN CLUB gifts. We donate 10% of everything we earn to Humane
Society of the U.S.
and Children's
Defense Fund.
Congratulations to the winners of the
Presidential Movie Contest in our last issue, Victoria Held of North Hollywood
FL and Christine Royston of Los Angeles CA. We sent each a SOCKS THE CAT
FAN CLUB t-shirt. Try the Cabinet Contest on page 3 of this issue!
Please join us wishing "HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY" to HILLARY RODHAM
CLINTON on Sunday, October 26.
It was a good hair day!
CHELSEA CLINTON AND NEEL LATTIMORE LEAVE THE WHITE
HOUSE;
SOCKS TO GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS
SOCKS is a little lonely right now. Two
of his best friends have left. First, Chelsea Clinton left for Palo Alto
CA on Thursday, September 18, to start college at Stanford University.
Her parents Bill and Hillary accompanied her. Not every college freshman
flies to college on Air Force One!
The President made speeches at Stanford
on Saturday, September 20, then in Pittsburgh PA and Little Rock AR. There,
on September 25th, the President attended the 40th anniversary of the desegregation
of Little Rock Central High School. What a purr-fect moment! Where Federal
troops had forced open the doors of Central High in 1957 to allow seven
scared children to go to school, President Clinton and Arkansas Governor
Mike Huckaby held those same doors open in 1997 so the same seven, now
in their 50s, could enter as the guests of honor for the anniversary ceremony.
SOCKS missed Bill and Hillary for a
week, and he won't see Chelsea again until she visits at Thanksgiving.
Then, on September 29, SOCKS's one-and-only-ever
press secretary retired from the White House (see following story). Neel
Lattimore served SOCKS and the First Lady since their days in Little Rock.
SOCKS THE CAT FAN CLUB interviewed Neel in Issue #6; he was funny, gentle,
and loving. We hope SOCKS's new handlers and Bill and Hillary are equally
funny and gentle and loving to him while his two favorite people are away.
On October 10, White House Press Secretary
Mike McCurry announced that Amy Weiss Tobe is the new Deputy Assistant
to the President and Deputy White House Press Secretary, but we don't know
yet whether she takes over SOCKS's press relations.
FIRST CAT LOSES A MASTER OF BON MOT -- AND BON
MEOW
by Ann Gerhart and Annie Groer, The Washington Post, The
Reliable Source, September 30, 1997
The Source is bereft and utterly inconsolable.
The gracious yet rapier-witted Neel Lattimore has resigned as press secretary
to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Now that he's off to do communications
for a Washington consulting firm, to whom can we turn for clever quotes?
For nearly five years, Lattimore, 37,
managed the neat trick of fiercely protecting his boss while serving up
delicious sound bites that could lighten the image of an often-embattled
HRC. Asked to comment on the flap over the First Lady's supposed conversations
with Eleanor Roosevelt, he said, "If you want to compare Mrs. Clinton to
Nancy Reagan, the only person Mrs. Clinton's been channeling with was her
TV, and I can assure you she was not tuned in to the Psychic Friends Network."
When the Weekly World News reported that the First Lady was pregnant, Lattimore
bluntly admitted, "I don't have the guts to ask her," then added: "This
is the same publication that said she adopted a space alien baby. If they
already have a space alien baby, I don't know if they need another one."
And last year, after the First Lady's
grand jury testimony, we asked Lattimore how everyone at Hillaryland was
holding up under the onslaught of Kenneth Starr. "You know," he sighed,
"if you hold your hand over the fire long enough, you think it's barbecue."
The First Lady sent word that she and
President Clinton "are sorry to see Neel leave, but we are immensely grateful
for his countless contributions to the White House. For five years, Neel
has exemplified the very best in public service. We will miss his creativity,
his quick wit and his caring attitude to everyone he encounters. Then,
referring to Lattimore's duties as the First Cat's spokesman, she said,
"SOCKS is speechless over Neel's departure."
Lattimore, a native of Shelby, NC, joins
the Bozell Sawyer Miller Group as a senior managing director. "I think
it will be really hard. My family is very much at the White House. [But]
I wanted to leave while I was still absolutely and totally in love with
the place." Unable to resist, he then added, "Oh, and when we had been
through 57 hairstyles and saw it come back full circle, I knew it was time
to go."
SOCKS THE CAT FAN CLUB FEATURED IN PARADE Magazine,
August 10, 1997
Q. Some weeks ago, you called SOCKS, the Clinton's cat, a female.
Aren't I correct that SOCKS is a male? -- James McNabb, Memphis TN
A. Sock it to us. SOCKS is indeed a neutered American shorthair
male who - along with his sister, Midnight - was abandoned in the spring
of 1990 by his owner in Little Rock and taken in by Chelsea Clinton's piano
teacher. Chelsea fell in love with SOCKS during a music lesson and adopted
him. For further information about the famous feline, (send a self-addressed
stamped envelope) to SOCKS THE CAT FAN CLUB, 611 South Ivy Street, Arlington
VA 22204; or visit (their website at) http://www.oocities.org/CapitolHill/6157
on
the World Wide Web.
Editor's Note: Since the write-up
in PARADE, our website has had 5,000 visitors and we have fulfilled 1,000
newsletter requests. Thank you!