An Addendum to College Kids

I really meant to have this information included in my College Kids blog entry, but I was so excited to have it written and put together I hit "publish" before I had this ready. Oops!

Anyway, thanks to the wacky Joshua Malina and Hrishikesh Hirway of The West Wing Weekly podcast, this clever bit of merchandise you see me wearing above tied to the College Kids episode was created with a ton of references to the show. You no doubt remember Donna telling Josh about the musical groups scheduled to perform at the Rock The Vote event at the House of Blues:

Josh: "Who's at the event?"

Donna: "Aimee Mann, the Barenaked Ladies, Chrissie Hynde, Sixpence None The Richer, Aaron Neville, Diamondback Whale, DaisyChain, Next Big Thing, the Cruel Shoes, and Single-Cell Paramecium."

Josh: "You've just been practicing for when I asked the question, right?"

Donna: "Yes."

Josh: "And you made up Cruel Shoes?"

Donna: "Single-Cell Paramecium."

Well, the podcast folks cooked up an actual Single-Cell Paramecium tour t-shirt! It's available online, but only at limited times ... you might have to wait for The West Wing Weekly to put it up for sale again (you can get on a list to be alerted when it's available, and join me and the other 1710 people who've bought the shirt).

The front of the shirt features the Single-Cell Paramecium band logo, of course (I apologize for the fold marks, but, well ... I keep it folded, so there you are):

And the back of the shirt has tour dates from the "MUSIC=SIRENS" 2002 world tour:

The first cool reference is the tour name itself, as well as the fact that it takes place in 2002 (the year of College Kids and the Rock The Vote event). MUSIC = SIRENS is a callback to Noël, and Josh's post-traumatic stress disorder causing him to associate music with the sound of sirens - thereby reliving the Rosslyn shooting from What Kind Of Day Has It Been and In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen every time he heard music.

But the other tour dates are neat little Easter eggs too. Let's have a look:

• Burbank, CA / Jack Warner Radio Hall

When President Bartlet is joking about his efforts to record his weekly radio address in And It's Surely To Their Credit , he says this (referring to the movie executive behind Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank):

President: "One-take Bartlet. That's what old Jack Warner used to call me." Later he says, "Five is my lucky number. Fifth-take Bartlet, that's what Jack Warner used to call me."

This causes Donna to ask, "Did you really know Jack Warner, Mr. President?" to which he replies:

President: "Yeah, because I used to be a contract player in Hollywood and I'm 97 years old."

• Newport Beach, CA / Mattress World

This is from an upcoming episode, and the introduction of Joshua Malina's character Will Bailey to the show. In Game On Bailey is running a congressional campaign in California for a candidate who died prior to the election. The campaign is being run out of a Mattress World storefront in Newport Beach, and Bailey's successful effort to promote a deceased candidate earns him a place on the White House staff for the rest of the series.

• Kirkwood, OR / Green Bean Gene's

In Galileo there's a mini-scandal when President Bartlet admits in an interview that he doesn't care for green beans, which causes the administration to worry about losing Oregon's electoral votes.

• Pluie, WY / Crossroads

In The Crackpots And These Women a proposal is brought to the White House about creating a "wolf highway" to allow the safe movement of wolves back and forth between Yellowstone National Park and the Yukon Territory. The real-life studies of the travels of a wolf named Pluie were the basis for this story - presented to CJ by none other than Nick Offerman.

• Fargo, ND / Butterball Stadium

President Bartlet calls in to the Butterball Hotline pretending to be Joe Bethersonton of Fargo, North Dakota, in The Indians In The Lobby.

• Warroad, MN / Border Bar

Donna finds out she's actually a Canadian citizen due to a border-drawing error near Warroad, Minnesota, in Dead Irish Writers.

• Madison, WI / Whitford Memorial Hall

Donna grew up and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin, first referenced in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen, Part II. The Whitford Memorial Hall is a nod to Bradley Whitford, who was born in Madison and graduated from Madison East High School. (Fun fact - there actually is a Whitford Memorial Hall in Milton, Wisconsin, just about 35 miles southeast of Madison).

• Cedar Rapids, IA / 4-H Convention

President Bartlet speaks in Cedar Rapids right before the Iowa caucuses in The Two Bartlets, where there is much conversation about the butter sculptures at the 4-H Convention. Cedar Rapids is also the location of the fictional Kennison State University, with the swim meet bombing occurred in 20 Hours In America, Part Two.

• South Bend, IN / University of Notre Dame

Of course President Bartlet is a graduate of Notre Dame, and also Toby and Josh run into a father taking his daughter on a college visit there in 20 Hours In America.

• Nashua, NH / Hank's Bar

Hank's Bar in Nashua is where we find Toby drinking when he thinks he's about to be fired from Bartlet's first campaign in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part I.

• Cambridge, MA / House of Blues

This is right from College Kids, and the Rock The Vote event at the House of Blues where Donna makes up the band name. While the performance date listed here is September 25, 2002, that episode actually aired on October 2 (also, the show's timeline does establish the event was on a Tuesday, and September 25 was a Wednesday in 2002).

• Wesley, CT / North Star

Wesley, Connecticut, is where Supreme Court nominee Roberto Mendoza was arrested, with Sam and Toby going on a road trip to get him out of jail in Celestial Navigation.

Toby: "Sam feels we're zeroing in on it."

 Josh: "You haven't found it yet?"

Toby: "We've been navigating by the North Star, which turned out to be the Delta shuttle from LaGuardia. It's a miracle we're not in Nantucket right now." 

• New York, NY / Music Box Theatre

The Music Box Theatre was the site of The Wars Of The Roses stage show that President Bartlet and Governor Ritchie attended in Posse Comitatus.

• Rosslyn, VA / Newseum

The (sadly closed) Newseum - located in Rosslyn at the time - is where President Bartlet held a town hall prior to the shooting in which both Bartlet and Josh were hit in What Kind Of Day Has It Been.

• Dallas, TX / Magnus Petasum

This is a tricky one! Magnus petasum means "big hat" in Latin.

Back in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" there's a storyline about the staffers blaming Bartlet's joke about big hats (or funny hats) as the reason he lost Texas in the election. Jed discounts that with his definition of the episode's title:

President: "After it, therefore because of it. It means one thing follows the other, therefore it was caused by the other, but it's not always true. In fact, it's hardly ever true. We did not lose Texas because of the hat joke. Do you know when we lost Texas?"

CJ: "When you learned to speak Latin?" 

• Jatara, Qumar / Royal Theatre

Qumar, a fictional Middle Eastern country with a tenuous relationship with the United States, was first mentioned in The Women Of Qumar when CJ questioned the US's close military relationship with a nation that mistreats its women. Later, of course, President Bartlet ordered the assassination of Qumar's Defense Minister Shareef after discovering he was behind multiple terrorist attacks against Americans, including an attempt on the Golden Gate Bridge (Enemies Foreign And Domestic).

• Bitanga, Equatorial Kundu / Nimbala Center

Equatorial Kundu was a topic in In This White House, when a military coup occurred as the President of the country was visiting Washington. President Bartlet offered to give President Nimbala sanctuary here, but he insisted on returning home and was assassinated when he landed at the airport in Bitanga.

 

So, that's that! A fun West Wing shirt full of references for West Wing nerds like myself. I thought (since it ties right in to College Kids) it would be fun to show it off. Stay tuned as my journey through Season 4 continues ...