I have been plugging away at a long article I’m writing about George Washington, his tomb and the (incredibly) long time it took for the country to build his monument. Maybe by the end of the week? Or sometime next week? Hopefully not too much longer – I have three other ideas in the hopper already and I want to get to each of them.
In the meantime, there’s been a lot of presidential action in pop culture. My friend Shaun in DC noticed this one: Battle for Presidency, which is apparently a real video game starring the presidents. Not to be missed: George Washington’s glowing red eyes, and Abe Lincoln wearing a top hat as part of his battle gear:
In case you weren’t sure, the Battle for Presidency official website says the dude in antlers is Teddy Roosevelt. “The Lion,” he’s called. By the way, not every president is a character in the game – it’s mostly the big, well-known names, plus James K. Polk (!)
This isn’t the only big video game news involving presidents, though. Today the company behind the Assassin’s Creed series announced they’re going to release a downloadable content pack in which George Washington is the lead villain. Yes, I said villain – in the promo images he’s sitting on a throne, having “succumbed to the temptations of power.” So between these two developments there’s apparently a large gamer niche that’s clamoring to have a go at the father of our country.
There was good news on the Teddy Roosevelt front: after 525 consecutive losses, TR won the Presidents Race at the Nationals’ ballpark in DC. To be fair, he won because a creature raced out from right field and knocked the other three presidents out of commission (perhaps he saw those Assassin’s Creed promos?) leading to a bully day at the field. It’s the first time Teddy’s ever won, and I suspect it’s because this is the first year the Nats have won the division – or had a winning season, for that matter. I caught a (very) small part of one game on TV while in DC, and they ran an amusing stat on the screen between innings. They first pointed out that the old Washington Senators had only won one World Series, the expansion Senators had only one winning season, and the Nationals now had their first winning season. I guess with that milestone under the team’s belt, Teddy could be contained no longer.
And finally, the big presidential movie event of the year, and I don’t mean Spielberg’s “Lincoln” or even “Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.” Presenting the one, the only, Chester A. Arthur: Sasquatch Trainer:
As if this wasn’t clever enough, the tease for “Rutherford B. Hayes: Urban Vigilante”… too perfect. “Bet on Chet”, indeed.
And with that, I’m back to my George Washington article – he’s not the villain in my piece, don’t worry.