It’s a Draw as President Plays Host to 15 Cartoonists

--President Reagan invited 15 political cartoonists to lunch at the White House and at one point took up the pen to draw a self-portrait. Among the 15 guests were five Pulitzer Prize winners but absent were some of the Administration’s most wicked artistic nemeses, including Herbert Block of the Washington Post, Garry Trudeau of United Features Syndicate and Paul Conrad of the Los Angeles Times. Conrad and Block have won three Pulitzers and Trudeau, author of the “Doonesbury” strip, has won one. A White House spokesman said no one was blackballed. But in Los Angeles, Conrad said: “I’m almost certain I would not be invited. I would have been very surprised if I had been. Besides, it’s a hell of a long way to go for lunch, anyway.” Reagan, whose doodles have been pictured in newspapers, later went to an easel and drew what a White House spokesman, Edward Djerejian, called an “autoportrait.” He said the self-portrait would not be released to the press but is “bound for the (National) Archives.” Dick Locher of the Chicago Tribune then caricatured Reagan thinking of a new attorney general--Dick Tracy. The President told the cartoonists their occupation is “a little peculiar in the system used to judge distinction. In football, it’s the number of touchdowns scored; in Hollywood it’s the number of Oscars won. But for a cartoonist the greatest treatment is to be clipped and taped to a refrigerator door.”

--For the first time in the 32-year history of the Air Force Academy, the top graduating cadet is a woman. Terrie Ann McLaughlin, 21, of Naperville, Ill., was chosen for the honor by her commanders and other cadets because of her academic achievements, as well as her military mien. “There was some question as to whether women belong in a military academy environment,” McLaughlin said. “I hope that in the future women can now say we really belong at the academy and we can do as much as anyone else.” Second Lt. McLaughlin will continue her studies at Stanford University this fall. Her goal is a career in research and military contracts.

--The Soviets are adopting a Western rock ‘n’ roll tactic. Russian musicians will play a benefit concert Friday in a 22,000-seat stadium in Moscow with the proceeds going to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster fund. The rumor in Moscow was that Bruce Springsteen would take part but it is not true. “So far we have no musicians from abroad who are planning to give concerts but if an American artist or any other would like to, we would be happy to consider any such request,” said a spokeswoman from the Ministry of Culture.