Object

Annie's Press Clipping (rosary‑shaped tomato human‑interest scrap)

The clipping features a humorous article and serves as a rhetorical prop for the President.

2 appearances

Purpose

To present a short human‑interest news item for informal sharing and light conversation among Oval Office visitors and staff.

Significance

Serves as an intimate anecdotal prop that Bartlet deploys to convert frivolous office banter into a moral lesson and to pivot attention back to urgent governance. The clipping carries personal provenance (Annie brought it) and functions narratively as a tangible cue of humility and accountability.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S1E1 · Pilot

Banter Breaks — Bartlet's Quiet Reckoning

Referred to by the President as the anecdotal prop that frames his moral point: Annie's press clipping about a rosary‑shaped tomato becomes the connective tissue between playful staff banter and the tragic Naval Intelligence figures, anchoring the rebuke in human terms.

Before: An item in the President's memory and reportedly shown to him previously by Annie; not physically presented in the current meeting.

After: Remains an invoked memory serving rhetorical purpose; its mention reframes the room's tone but the physical scrap is not exchanged or produced.

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S1E1 · Pilot

Break's Over" — Bartlet Reclaims the Oval

Bartlet recounts a press clipping Annie once brought him about a rosary-shaped tomato; the clipping functions as an anecdotal moral hinge — a small, domestic image that he contrasts with the stark Naval Intelligence refugee numbers to shame the staff into focus.

Before: Originally in Annie's possession when she showed it to the President earlier; exists as a remembered, recently referenced item in the President's anecdote.

After: Remains a referenced memory/anecdote rather than a physical prop in use; its evocative image continues to puncture the Oval's conversation but is not physically handled in this moment.

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