81: James A. Garfield
| James A. Garfield |
 Made by: Colin Foster |
Explanation[edit | edit source]
James A. Garfield was the 20th President of the United States, becoming President on March 4th, 1881, being shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, and dying on September 19, thus concluding the second-shortest presidency to date, and leaving Chester A. Arthur to succeed him.
Some say that the common practice of inserting unsterilized fingers into the bullet wound by the doctors was a major factor, though others say infection from the bullet itself was inevitable, and a professor has said that starvation also played a role, going on to say that in today's world, he would've gone home in a couple of days.
The choice of president is simple enough to figure out, as his surname is Garfield, same as the cat's name. This is no coincidence, as Garfield the cat was named after Jim Davis' grandfather, James Garfield Davis, himself named after the president.
James A. Garfield's quote here is an excerpt from p. 396 of The Diary of James A. Garfield: 1875-1877 (1983), edited by Harry James Brown and Frederick D. Williams. In the context of the comic, he seems to be considering the fact that the Arbuckle household is down to only one bag of potato chips to be a great crisis.
Speaking of potato chips (or "crisps" in British English, as "chips" there are more similar to french fries), they were, indeed, invented a few decades before Garfield's presidency; a traditional story dates them to 1853 in the United States, while in England, it's attributed to William Kitchinier's 1822 cookbook The Cook's Oracle, a bestseller in both England and the United States.
Whether James A. Garfield ever had this kind of potato chip is unknown, but certainly possible. (Incidentally, earlier president Thomas Jefferson had "potatoes served in the French manner" in 1802.)
The author writes:[edit | edit source]
James A. Garfield was the President of the United States for four months, until a disgruntled speechwriter shot him in his torso. Thanks to the efforts of his doctors, what may have been a non-fatal shooting ended up growing into an infection, killing him eighty days later. Presumably, he enjoyed potato chips.
The portrait used of James A. Garfield here is public domain.
Original strip: 2005-09-08.
Transcript[edit | edit source]
Jon: Not counting this bag...
Jon: We're completely out of potato chips.
James A. Garfield: Nobody but radicals have ever accomplished anything in a great crisis.
