Socks (cat)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Socks (born c. 1991) was the pet cat of Bill Clinton and the Clinton family. After the Clintons left the White House, Socks was given to Clinton's secretary, Betty Currie.
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[edit] Biography
Socks was adopted by the Clintons in 1991 after he jumped into the arms of Chelsea Clinton while she was leaving the house of her piano teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was playing with his sibling, 'Midnight'. Midnight was later adopted by someone else. After Bill Clinton became President, Socks moved with the family from the governor's mansion to the White House and became the principal pet of the First Family in Clinton's first term, though he was known to share his food and water with a stray tabby, dubbed "Slippers." He was often taken to schools, hospitals, and nursing homes to take part in goodwill visits.[citation needed] During the Clinton administration, children visiting the White House website would be guided by a cartoon version of Socks.[1]
He eventually lost the position of principal Clinton pet in 1997 when the Clintons acquired Buddy, a Labrador Retriever. At this point some fans of Socks joked that Socks had been "voted out of office" of White House pet in favor of the more traditional dog. Socks found Buddy's intrusion intolerable; according to Hillary Rodham Clinton, Socks "despised Buddy from first sight, instantly and forever" and Bill Clinton said that "I did better with the Palestinians and the Israelis... than I've done with Socks and Buddy." When the Clintons left the White House in 2001 they took Buddy to their new home, but left Socks under the care of Bill Clinton's secretary, Betty Currie. Socks was only the fourth cat to occupy the White House since Franklin Roosevelt's presidency.
In mid-2006 Socks was in good health and still living with Currie and her husband in Hollywood, Maryland, about 130 km from Washington. In October 2005 he made a now-rare public appearance when Currie was guest speaker at an Officers' Spouses Club luncheon at Andrews Air Force Base. Socks accompanied her and took part in a photo op.[2]
[edit] Investigation
In one of the many Republican sponsored investigations used to harass the Clinton administration, the use of White House staff, postage, and stationary to answer mail addressed to the cat was probed by Sen Dan Burton.[3]
[edit] Cultural references
Socks was due to star in his own computer game for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo, Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill, to be released in the autumn of 1993. However the game was dropped when the U.S. arm of the developer, Kaneko, was closed down. The game was to be a platform game in which Socks would have to fight his way past foreign spies, the media and politicians in order to warn the White House of a stolen nuclear missile.[4] It is speculated that Republican presidents George H. W. Bush and Richard Nixon would have been bosses; if true, the game would have been politically controversial and this may have contributed to the game being scrapped.[5] No copies or ROMs of the game are known to exist.[citation needed]
A cartoon book called Socks Goes to Washington: The Diary of America's First Cat, written by Michael O'Donoghue and Jean-Claude Suares, was published in 1993.[6]
Socks was a character in If Stephen Bell's cartoon-strip in the Guardian, where he was described as the "world's most powerful cat"
Socks was featured prominently in an episode of the sitcom Murphy Brown in December 1993 entitled Sox and the Single Girl, in which Socks is inadvertently removed from the White House during a press dinner.[7][8] Also, in the April 1, 1994 edition of Larry King Live, a Muppet version of Socks was a special guest interviewed by Kermit the Frog, who was guest hosting for Larry King at the time.[9]
In 1996 Socks appeared on a series of stamps in the Central African Republic with Bill Clinton.
In Berkeley Breathed's comic strip Outland, Socks was involved in a homosexual affair with Bill the Cat. They appeared together on a talk show, along with Checkers Nixon, Rex Reagan and Millie Bush, on the topic of "Gay Presidential Pets."
The video clip for the song Blister in the Sun by the band The Violent Femmes, made for the movie Grosse Pointe Blank depicts an obsessive fan donning a Socks costume and attempting to assassinate Socks while he was speaking in public. Socks survived the incident unscathed while the would-be assassin was apprehended.
[edit] References
- ^ The White House for Kids
- ^ Purr-n-Fur UK : Socks Clinton, and other presidential felines
- ^ Burton: A 'Pit Bull' in the Chair
- ^ SNES Central: Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill
- ^ Nintendo's Era of Censorship
- ^ Amazon.com: "Socks Goes to Washington: The Diary of America's First Cat"
- ^ "Murphy Brown": Sox and the Single Girl at TV.com
- ^ "Murphy Brown": Sox and the Single Girl (1993) at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ Tough Pigs Anthology: April Frog's Day, April 2002: Part Six: Watch What You Do
