Archive for the ‘abe lincoln’ Tag
I’m not feeling too domestic today so gardens, food, and computers are off the menu. I’ve been paging though my library of interesting but useless facts and factoids. At first I couldn’t decide whether to supply all of you with unusual information about sex but I think I’ll save that for another day. Since I consider myself a patriotic citizen it was only logical (Thanks Mr. Spock) that I find as many odd and unusual facts about some of our great and no so great presidents.
With Obama on his way out (Yeah!)(Finally!) and the presidential election looming I felt we needed to reconnect with our American roots. Lets start if off with ten quick questions about some of our past presidents. I’ll list the questions first and the answers will be found at the end of this post.
Questions
1. How many bathrooms are in the White House?
2. What was the Secret Service’s code name for Barbara Bush?
3. What did Woodrow Wilson, Americas 28th president, denounce as a symbol of “the arrogance of wealth”?
4. President Gerald Ford pardoned Iva D’Aquino in 1977. Who was she?
5. President Lydon Johnson called his pet beagles Him and Her; what did President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, name His and Hers?
6. What president was ticketed for speeding in Washington, D.C., while he was in office?
7. What did President John F. Kennedy commission Pierre Salinger to do on the eve of signing the Cuban Trade Embargo?
8. How many tons of jelly beans were purchased by the White House during the presidency of Ronald Reagan?
9. What did President Franklin D. Roosevelt have printed on the White House matchbooks?
10. Which American president was the first to have a telephone on his desk in the White House? 
I found a few of the question interesting but the answers were even better. I’m sending this bonus trivia story along because it’s just do damn strange.
"On his way home from Harvard one day, Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of President Abraham Lincoln, fell off the platform while waiting for his train. He was saved from possible death by Edwin Booth, the actor, and brother of John Wilkes Booth – the man who, only a few weeks later, assassinated President Lincoln.”
Answers
1. 34
2. Tranquility
3. The Automobile
4. Tokyo Rose, the seductive-voiced Japanese radio propagandist during World War II.
5. The pistols they kept under their pillows.
6. Ulysses S. Grant, in his horse and buggy. He was fined $5.00.
7. Buy and stockpile 1,500 Havana cigars.
8. 12 Tons
9. “Stolen from the White House”
10. Herbert Hoover, in 1929. Previous presidents used an enclosed phone booth in the hallway outside the Oval Office.
MORE SEX TRIVIA TO COME
In the past I’ve been known to take a few potshots at politicians, both local and federal. I don’t ever intend to stop doing that but in all fairness I thought I’d quote a few presidents of both parties to show all of you that stupidity and wiseassiness is endemic to both.
I think it’s fairly obvious in this day and age that the office of the presidency has lost some of it’s sparkle. We no longer assume that any president has all the answers or in some cases has any answers. They’re just regular people who were for some reason elected into an extremely important office and they spend most of their time trying not look stupid. Unfortunately for us the majority of the time they’re not very successful.
I’m listing these quotations in no particular order. I think it’s only fair that I leave the Presidents speak for themselves so you can make your own judgments.
* * *
“Even though most people agree… I’m presenting a fair deal, the fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow do a Jedi mind-meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right.” —President Obama, mixing up Star Wars and Star Trek references while discussing working with Republicans in Congress (March 1, 2013)
”I was under medication when I made the decision to burn the tapes.” —Richard Nixon
‘‘Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.”—President George W. Bush, Sept. 6, 2004
”Did you ever think that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.” —Lyndon Johnson
“Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
”I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” —President John Kennedy, at a dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners of the Western Hemisphere, the White House, April 29, 1962
‘‘Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.” —Ronald Reagan
”If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: ‘President Can’t Swim.” —Lyndon Johnson
”If I had to name my greatest strength, I guess it would be my humility. Greatest weakness, it’s possible that I’m a little too awesome.” —Barack Obama, at the 2008 Al Smith Dinner
”My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. It is very nice now when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.” —President Jimmy Carter
”Being president is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you and nobody’s listening.” —Bill Clinton
”He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas better than any man I ever met.” —Abraham Lincoln, referring to a lawyer
* * *
I don’t see anything all that impressive in this posting which doesn’t surprise me in the least. Presidents are just as silly and stupid as the rest of us except they dress better and have a nicer place to live. Hopefully “We the People” will never take them as seriously as they seem to take themselves, that could be a serious mistake.
everyuselessthing.com 