What a great read! That's cool that Herbert Hoover and his wife spoke Mandarin or Cantonese. And either J.F.K. watched really boring movies, or had a short attention span.
heh. I love cats, have three, but I can still get a chuckle out of picturing old Dwight picking off a few strays...
FDR also wasn't shy about personally picking out the designs of some stamp issues. Seems like a small perk to me, although no president would get away with that today.
I liked "Silent Cal's" factoid the best... he always struck me as a neat guy.
from his wikipedia article:
Another famous anecdote has it that one Sunday, Mrs. Coolidge was too ill to attend church, and Calvin attended the services alone. When he returned, his wife asked him, "Did you go to church?" "Yes," Calvin responded. "Did the minister give a sermon?" his wife continued. "Yes," Calvin answered. "What did he talk about?" Mrs. Coolidge pressed impatiently. "Sin," her husband replied. "Well," demanded the Calvin's wife, as her frustration continued to mount, "what did he say about it?" "He's against it," Calvin concluded.
With regard to President Madison and Hail to the Chief, we have our own bit of fiction about that song in Canada. The myth goes that during WWII, FDR paid a call to Prime Minister MacKenzie King in Ottawa. Upon entering the room, the band struck up Hail to the Chief, causing FDR to ask King if the song was how the Canadian Prime Minister was officially greeted. King replied, no, nothing official, I just like it. FDR, upon returning to the US, had Congress sponsor a bill officially naming Hail as the offical song to be played whenever the president entered a function.
"He added to [the stamp collection] by simply having the Postmaster General and State Department mail him every new issue."
That kind of takes the fun out of it. I recall Doonesbury's fictional 70's rocker Jimmy Thudpucker collected stamps in much the same way.
FDR also wasn't shy about personally picking out the designs of some stamp issues. Seems like a small perk to me, although no president would get away with that today.
from his wikipedia article:
Another famous anecdote has it that one Sunday, Mrs. Coolidge was too ill to attend church, and Calvin attended the services alone. When he returned, his wife asked him, "Did you go to church?" "Yes," Calvin responded. "Did the minister give a sermon?" his wife continued. "Yes," Calvin answered. "What did he talk about?" Mrs. Coolidge pressed impatiently. "Sin," her husband replied. "Well," demanded the Calvin's wife, as her frustration continued to mount, "what did he say about it?" "He's against it," Calvin concluded.