Making politics palatable
Every time I get my hands on a book, or a set of cards (don’t judge me) that covers all of the presidents, I am very curious about how Grover Cleveland is handled. This whole only-president-to-serve-nonconsecutive-terms business complicates things. Sometimes he gets one entry that covers both of his terms. In this case, there’s usually […]
Whenever I have the opportunity to talk about Benjamin Harrison, I can’t resist the urge to refer to him as the meat in the Grover Cleveland sandwich. Go ahead. Take a minute; unpack that. Benjamin Harrison could be described as a heritage president. Great, now I sound like I’m talking about turkeys. His great-grandfather was […]
James Buchanan both started and ended his presidency as a bachelor. Grover Cleveland entered the presidency a bachelor and left it a married man. In fact, he was the first sitting president to be married in the White House. That is the factoid about President Cleveland that takes a second place to the other fact […]
Chester Alan Arthur never ran for president. One source describes him as being best known for succeeding James Garfield. Others might think he should be best known for his dapper style and his righteous facial hair. Burnsides! He had burnsides, a facial hairstyle named for Civil War General Ambrose Burnside. Even the White House […]
This is really neither here nor there, but the elementary school I attended was named after President James A. Garfield. I had wondered whether this was the case, but confirmed it in an article that talked about the school’s closing. Garfield is one of those presidents who wasn’t in office very long. Due to an […]
Rutherford Hayes‘ beard always reminded me of Shredded Wheat cereal. I remember looking at it in a book about the presidents that my family had. I understand that for other people, thinking about the presidents doesn’t match up with thinking about comestibles. For most other people who have taken an American history class, Hayes is […]
I have always thought that Ulysses S. Grant was the most handsome of our presidents. There, I said it. If it can be said that the Civil War had a darling, from the Union point of view, that would have been Ulysses S. Grant. Most of his fame came from his deeds on the field, […]
Andrew Johnson is a president who I first remember learning about in the fourth grade. I remember learning about him and trying to understand what impeachment is. Andrew Johnson, like many of the other presidents is someone given to us by swirling, crazy circumstances. Abraham Lincoln choose him as his running mate largely as a […]
There are a bazillion sources of information on Abraham Lincoln. At Ford’s Theatre, which I very, very much want to visit, there is a large spiraling tower of books about him. That makes it a challenge to identify just one element to focus on to create a tribute cupcake for him. Even if you want […]
James Buchanan is one of the presidents unfortunate enough to be on one side of Lincoln, a president commonly remembered as a great one (well, at least among some folks). The one fact that I remember from elementary school studies is that he was the only president not to have been married, ever. There […]