Hatter (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) the other is a bureau with a quill!" The RSPB, in its definition of Raven, states: "The raven [...] is all black with a large bill, and long wings." American author Stephen King provides an alternative answer to the Hatter's riddle in his 1977 horror novel "The Shining". Snowbound and isolated "ten thousand feet high" in the Rocky Mountains, the five-year-old son "Danny" hears whispers of the malign "voice of the [Overlook] hotel" inside his head, including this bit of mockery, "why is a raven like a writing desk? The higher the fewer, of course! Have another cup of tea!"
Wilson desk was chosen to inform the President of the issue because he was, "the most frequent Wilson-quoter on the writing staff." Safire wrote a memo to Nixon explaining that it was Henry Wilson, not Woodrow Wilson, who sat at the desk, and listed a litany of character traits and virtues of the other "Wilson." Safire heard nothing back from the White House about the memo. The only recognition Nixon's White House gave to their major mistake in the provenance of the desk was in 1969 when on page 909 of that year's edition of "Public Papers of the Presidents" there is