Pat Oliphant was on hand last night at
Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C. to sign copies of his latest book, "
Leadership: Cartoon and Sculpture from the Bush Years."
I was particularly surprised by how briefly he spoke. There were a couple of Washington notables in attendance, including the self-important Bill Press, formerly of CNN's Crossfire. Oliphant sketched intermittently while he talked, answered a couple of questions, and then attended to the massive line of people wanting a copy of his book signed.
The best part of the evening came when a man asked a question about self-censorship, and if Oliphant ever has to deal with editors who refuse his work. (Oliphant doesn't work for a newspaper, he's syndicated, which means he just turns his cartoons in, and whoever subscribes to the service can either choose to use his cartoons or not. He never knows.)
Anyway, he looked at the gentleman that asked the question and said, "Oh, look at you," and immediately began to draw a caricature of the guy (who must have had 15 Oliphant books to sign) forgetting the question entirely.
Bruce Guthrie, as usual, took a ton of great pictures, which can be viewed
here.
UPDATE:
Richard Thompson of Poor Richard's Almanac fame chimed in to let me know that the "guy" that Oliphant began to draw was none other than Patch Adams, the basis for the character in the movie with Robin Williams. I didn't get a good look at his arm hair, but I didn't see the resemblance.
