Picking Letters for the President
Hold everything! I have found my dream job: Director of the White House Office of Correspondence. There is an insightful piece in today’s NY Times about the current holder of this position, Mike Kelleher, and how he goes about sifting through thousands of letters and selects the few that President Obama will actually read (and sometimes write a response to!). Here’s a snippet from the article:
He [Kelleher] chooses 10 letters, which are slipped into a purple folder and put in the daily briefing book that is delivered to President Obama at the White House residence. Designed to offer a sampling of what Americans are thinking, the letters are read by the president, and he sometimes answers them by hand, in black ink on azure paper.
April 20th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Yes, what a dream job! I saw a piece on this on, I think, ABC News. Nice.
Another great White House job is the calligraphy office. (They had a fancy name for it, but I forget what it was.) I saw a mini-documentary on these people who do all the lettering for addresses, placecards, certificates, etc.
It’s another world up there, isn’t it?
April 21st, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I love that he slips them into a purple folder…
Ya know, a good executive trains his replacement… Maybe you could write Mr. Kelleher and ask if you could be his apprentice?
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:28 am
Oh, gosh, how awesome! But … azure paper? Although I suppose it should be legible with black ink … I remember once almost being slaughtered by a friend for writing to her in red ink on purple paper.