Presidential Trivia Answers

On Sunday, I presented at random quiz on trivia about US Presidents. In case you missed that post, here is the quiz reprinted:

Easy:
1. Who is the shortest US president?
2. Which presidential child has a candy bar named after him/her?
3. Who is the only US president also to serve on the US Supreme Court?
4. Which US president vomited on the lap of the Japanese prime minister during a state dinner?
5. Who is the last US president to have facial hair while in office?

Tougher:
6. Who are the only 2 US presidents to hold all of the five following offices: state governor, US congressman, US senator, Vice-President, and President?
7. Which 3 US presidents won Nobel Peace Prizes?
8. Who is the only US president whose wife was not born in the United States?
9. Which is the longest-married presidential couple?
10. Who is the only person buried directly between two US presidents?

Painfully Difficult:
11. What common English word very likely originated with President Martin Van Buren?
12. Who are the only two police officers to become president?
13. What is the only book ever written by one ex-president about another one?
14. Which president is buried at the top of a staircase in which the number of stairs is equal to the number of that president in a chronological listing of presidents? (i.e. - if it were George W. Bush, which it obviously is not, it would be a staircase with 43 stairs since he is the 43rd president.)
15. Who is the only US president to be elected on his birthday?

Scroll down for answers.



Answers:

1. James Madison, at 5 feet, 4 inches tall.
2. Ruth Cleveland, daughter of President Grover Cleveland. She was the first presidential child to be born in the White House, and she caused quite a sensation in Washington. And, in her honor, a new candy bar of the time was designated the "Baby Ruth" candy bar.
3. Former President William Howard Taft was appointed to be and served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
4. George H.W. Bush.
5. Willia Howard Taft (had a moustache).

6. John Tyler and Andrew Johnson
7. Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter.
8. John Quincy Adams. His wife Louisa was born in England.
9. George H.W. and Barbara Bush (January 6, 2007, will be their 62nd wedding anniversary).
10. Abigail Adams. She is buried in the crypt beneath the United First Parish Church of Quincy, Massachusetts between President John Adams (her husband) and President John Quincy Adams (her son).

11. "Okay". Van Buren was from Kinderhook, New York, and he obtained the nickname "Old Kinderhook." During his campaign for presidnet, "Old Kinderhook Clubs" were established and known as "O.K. Clubs." As time progressed, the abbreviation came to mean "all right" and eventually nearly everyone forgot the word's origin.
12. Theodore Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland
13. Herbert Hoover's book The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson.
14. Theodore Roosevelt (buried in Young's Memorial Cemetery in Oyster Bay, New York, at the top of a 26-step staircase).
15. Warren Harding, on his 55th birthday, November 2, 1920.

Today's Holidays:

• Loosen Up, Lighten Up Day
• National American Teddy Bear Day
• National Young Readers Day
  

Gerald Ford Becomes Longest-Living US President

For 175 years, John Adams, the second US President, held the distinction of being the longest-living US President (he lived 90 years, 247 days). Then, just five years ago, Ronald Reagan broke the long-standing record and, by the time of his death in 2004, had established a new benchmark of 93 years, 120 days.

However, Gerald Ford, the only US president not elected as president or vice-president, was born just two years after Reagan, and today, November 12, 2006, he passed Reagan's record, now having lived for 93 years, 121 days (and counting). Ford is one of the most athletic presidents ever to serve, having been a football star at the University of Michigan while in office. No doubt his good habits and active lifestyle have contributed to his longevity. The four other living US Presidents have a long way to go to reach Ford's record, as Presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter are both 82 years old, and Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are both 60 years old.

Gerald Ford is also the only surviving member of the Warren Commission, the 7-member panel that investigated the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy.

I'm a huge fan of US Presidential history, so just for the heck of it, here's a little presidential trivia quiz for you. I will post the answers on Tuesday.

Easy:
1. Who is the shortest US president?
2. Which presidential child has a candy bar named after him/her?
3. Who is the only US president also to serve on the US Supreme Court?
4. Which US president vomited on the lap of the Japanese prime minister during a state dinner?
5. Who is the last US president to have facial hair while in office?

Tougher:
6. Who are the only 2 US presidents to hold all of the five following offices: state governor, US congressman, US senator, Vice-President, and President?
7. Which 3 US presidents won Nobel Peace Prizes?
8. Who is the only US president whose wife was not born in the United States?
9. Which is the longest-married presidential couple?
10. Who is the only person buried directly between two US presidents?

Painfully Difficult:
11. What common English word very likely originated with President Martin Van Buren?
12. Who are the only two police officers to become president?
13. What is the only book ever written by one ex-president about another one?
14. Which president is buried at the top of a staircase in which the number of stairs is equal to the number of that president in a chronological listing of presidents? (i.e. - if it were George W. Bush, which it obviously is not, it would be a staircase with 43 stairs since he is the 43rd president.)
15. Who is the only US president to be elected on his birthday?


Today's Holiday:

• I Need a Patch For That Day
  

Veto! (The Presidential "Fuck You")

Today President Bush issued the first veto of his presidency, that fascinating Constitutional power that allows one person to override the stated will of 66% of the country's representatives in Congress. I am a total political junkie (as you may have noticed on the sidebar links), and the veto is one of the most intriguing powers given to the US President. Interestingly, the word "veto" does not actually appear in the US Constitution, though its powers are defined in Article 1, Section 7.

President Bush's veto of a bill that would have expanded federal funding for stem cell research is notable on several fronts. First, until this veto, it appeared that Bush was on his way to becoming only the second president in US history to complete two terms in office without issuing a single veto (Thomas Jefferson is the only one to hold this distinction). As it was, President Bush was the first president since Martin Van Buren in the 1830's to go an entire term of office without a single veto. In comparison, President Clinton vetoed 37 times during his presidency. And even he was very restrained compared to presidents like Grover Cleveland (584 vetoes) and Franklin Roosevelt (635 vetoes).

But President Bush's veto today is interesting for its political ramifications as well.

Click below to read more insightful analysis and to see some pictures of Bushes that are much more attractive than the one in the White House...

President Bush's decision to veto the stem cell research bill is a classic illustration of what is both his greatest potential for success but, when left unchecked, has proven to be one of his greatest potentials for failure. That is, when this president comes to a conclusion on a particular matter and is convinced of its "rightness", he simply does not move from that position no matter what the political (or other) costs to himself or others. In an ideal world, this is something that we would admire in a politician, for all of us have been irritated at times by politicians who have held more positions than Steamworks on a Saturday night. But President Bush's potential for failure is that sometimes (and I know many of my friends would say "often") the conclusion he arrives at is not the correct one, so he ends up holding tenaciously and unyieldingly to a bad position.

Thus, today he found himself in the position where, because of this character trait of his, he used one of the strongest powers of the presidency to oppose a bill that was supported by some of his most faithful "pro-life" supporters, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and ultra-conservative Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (who, if I recall correctly, was one of the co-chairs of President Bush's inaugural committee).

Admittedly, it is a very difficult ethical situation, and the strange bedfellows who put the bill together only highlights that fact, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the days to come. I will say that President Bush's announcement about the veto was handled with more political adeptness than we have seen from this White House generally, with the president being surrounded by children who were born after being "adopted" as unused frozen embryos, the very ones that would be destroyed if the bill had become law. Personally, I think this is one of those cases where the moral lines involved are so difficult to define that, so long as someone has given the issue thoughtful consideration, I would not be extremely critical regardless of which side he or she comes down on.

Well, speaking of wanting to go down on something, and since we have been thinking about Bushes a lot in this post, here's some bushes that I think you will enjoy looking at!

W turns 60

To celebrate the president's 60th birthday today, President Bush and Vice President Cheney reportedly decided to pull out the outfits they used to wear at the old Halliburton parties and attempt to show they still "have it."

Apparently, though, the Secret Service hates these "special" parties because they end up having to bottom for "Georgina" and "Rita," as they are both tops (a fact, of course, which comes as no surprise to the country, since the past 6 years have made it apparent that George fucks everything he touches and Dick screws everyone he meets).

At press time, reports that a White House staffer walked in on the two leaders doing it "Jefferson-style" in the Lincoln Bedroom could not be confirmed.

The West Wing

If someone were to design a TV show specifically for the purpose of entertaining me, they would probably come up with a show having something to do with the presidents. Ever since my excellent high-school government teacher gave me my final project topic of "Presidential Leadership Styles," I have been fascinated by US presidential history. This fascination has grown into a pretty significant hobby, as I have collected and read many books about the presidents and traveled to over 150 historic sites related to the presidents (including the gravesite of every deceased president and all of the presidential libraries save one).

So I was thrilled when I heard of this new TV show called The West Wing but at the same time disappointed because it came out just as I was about to move to Belgium. So, since I did not get to start the series in its first season, I never got around to watching it at all. Until now.

Fortunately, I have a friend who has begun purchasing each of the seasons of the show on DVD as they are released, and he has been kind enough to allow me to borrow them to watch. I am now about halfway through the third season, and although I'm obviously late to the party, I must say, this show is awesome! It's like porn for presidential history geeks (both of us).

Off the top of my head, here's some random things I have loved about the series thus far.
- The pacing of the show is great. With one exception, the dialogue is very fast-paced and the action constant. The set on which they work is amazing, full, and inter-connected, so they move quickly from one room to another, giving the impression of the intense pressure-filled atmosphere that comes from running the most powerful office in the world. However, scenes within the Oval Office are invariably much calmer and slower-paced, and the contrast works brilliantly.
- The writers of the show have done an amazing amount of research and work in all kinds of cool trivia and even educational information into the storylines of the show. And, as a president snob, I love when I hear some historical bit of trivia and can say, "I knew that!"
- Controversial issues are dealt with in a superb manner. Although the Bartlett administration is Democratic, Republicans are not presented as hateful morons. There are certainly some
"bad" politicians in the show, but they are not limited to one party. And, when characters in the show are arguing over a difficult topic, the strongest possible arguments for either position are presented effectively, so even if the show ends up going one direction, those who went the other are generally shown to be thoughtful, patriotic people who just have a sincere difference of opinion. I also love how they do not shy away from difficult truths about touchy topics. Very brave and, rarity of rarities in modern-day TV drama, actually stimulates the viewer's thinking. And I love how the main characters in the show are presented as intelligent but real (and sometimes flawed) people who are not where they are (earning far less than they could with their abilities most anywhere else) just for power, but because they truly love their country and want to make a difference.
- Rob Lowe is still hot.

Gay Families to Attend Annual White House Easter Egg Roll

About 200 gay families are going to attend the annual White House Easter egg roll next Monday (April 17). Here again is an example of why (as I mentioned in my previous post about American Idol's Mandisa) I get so irritated with people who try to cloak their prejudice in the name of religion. Is there anything less benign or less religious than an Easter egg roll? And yet, like clockwork, the religious organizations come out and oppose the gay families.

On a side note, although George W. Bush often irritates me, I think Laura's a pretty classy person, probably far more balanced than her husband. I have a feeling that, if she wasn't constrained by political reality, she would be opposed to a lot of the policies of her husband's administration toward gay rights. Just a hunch, I have nothing to support that, though.