16

WEDNESDAY

I don’t know what you’ve read in the gossip columns or heard in the locker room, but take it from me: The Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) is nothing but a tease. It lures you in with seductive promises of Founding Father paraphernalia—”The old saying, ‘If only these walls could talk,’ fits this building most appropriately,” purrs the facility’s Web site—and then leaves you hanging. “Where’s Benjamin Franklin’s crabtree walking stick?” you might wonder in the bittersweet aftermath of your first tour. Slowly, painfully, the truth will dawn on you. Whether that stick is made of crabtree or particle board, you’ll never know, because it hasn’t been on display at the EEOB since the 19th century. How could you be so naive? Demand the whole truth when Lonnie J. Hovey, the EEOB’s director of preservation, talks about the history of this most presidentially fabulous of all office buildings at 11:30 a.m. at the White House Visitor Center, 1450 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Free. (202) 208-1631. (Felix Gillette)