Today is President's Day. And let's be honest...who really cares? It amounts to a day off of work/school and for that we are all thankful. But because I'm a history geek and I love any excuse to do research I traipsed around the internet to find some interesting characters in our Presidential past. Who got stuck in the White house bathtub? Which president really liked pants? I'll have the answers to these questions and more in this edition of...
PRESIDENTIAL ADVENTURES!!!!
While some of our Presidents made headlines through scandal and reform, I'm not going to focus on those ninnies. Today we're talking about the underdog. The guy that no one remembers. The guy that you could have sworn you never learned about in history class. Let's meet our first contender:
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President Millard Fillmore
With a name like Millard there's no way this guy didn't get made fun of in school. He grew up in the early 1800's out in the woods somewhere and must have been smart because he became a lawyer. He joined the Whig party and began his political career. This should give you a hint of why he's lesser known: He was a Whig. I don't know much about the Whig party but in my mind it's a bunch of dudes wearing wigs who pronounce their party name with a Rod Kimble "whhhisky" flare to it.
While he didn't do anything fantastically embarrassing during his presidency, Fillmore can be crediting with adding 3 of our current states to the Union during his run in office. If it weren't for him we wouldn't have had Califonia, Utah or New Mexico. (California joined as a state, the other two as US territories). Which upon further consideration I"m almost certain we could have lived without...
Our next focus will be on a man who is not hard to focus on at all. In fact he's rather large.
William Howard Taft
Mr. Taft began his political career as most of our presidents did: Attending a hooty falooty law school and going from there. But his political career is boring. Let's talk more about his weight. President Taft is famously known for getting stuck in the White house bathtub, a situation which required the aid of six men (and some butter) to get him out.
I looked for a quote by Taft addressing the situation but only found dumb politics quotes so I made one up. I like to imagine he sat in the tub, realized he was stuck and said
"Crap. I'm stuck!"
This next dude really liked pants. Yep, that's all I've got.
Chester Arthur
Gaining office after president Garfield passed away, Chester Arthur ran his term without a vice president and due to his swift entrance into office also never gave an inaugural speech.
"Would you like to say a few words?"
"No thanks, my mutton chops say enough"
MANLY.
Arthur was nicknamed "Elegant Arthur" due to his dignified look, and his love of pants. It is said that he owned at least 80 pairs of pants and was known to change them a few times a day. On his last day of office four young women asked to marry him but he turned them all down.
"You could never love me as much as I love my pants."
Now we move to the man who had the shortest presidency in American History.
William Henry Harrison
Harrison is said to the the only president who studied to become president. Whatever that means. Harrison died on April 4, 1841. His inaugural speech was 1 hour 40 minutes long and was made in the rain in March. He caught pneumonia and died just 32 days after taking office. The whole situation is pretty much a bummer.
"I should have used an umbrella"
William is the prime example of why your mom always tells you to "get out of those wet clothes before you catch pneumonia". He's also the prime example of why you shouldn't give speeches that are almost two hours long. He was asking for it. He wanted the presidency too much and that's what being too eager will get you.
Did I miss anything? Do you know any interesting president facts? Leave a comment! I'm interested in what you have to say.
(If you did not get my Hot Rod reference...here's a little clip to bring some clarification to the matter)
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