Master Index of Archived Threads


Presidential calendar trivia

metsguyinmichigan Feb 25 2008 07:54 AM

I got the presidential trivia page-a-day for Christmas. This question was pretty good: Since the start of the 20th century, only three men have become president without previously having held major elective office. Who are they? (I thought one was obvious, and one was pretty tough.)

MFS62 Feb 25 2008 07:56 AM

Going for the obvious - Dwight Eisenhower. Later

metsguyinmichigan Feb 25 2008 08:06 AM

Correct! One down, two to go.

AG/DC Feb 25 2008 08:07 AM

Well, there's plenty of ambiguity in the term "major elective office," but I'll go with Hoover.

Frayed Knot Feb 25 2008 08:12 AM

Wilson

Benjamin Grimm Feb 25 2008 08:14 AM

Bush 41.

metsguyinmichigan Feb 25 2008 08:17 AM

AG/DC wrote: Well, there's plenty of ambiguity in the term "major elective office," but I'll go with Hoover. Hoover is correct! One to go -- which means no to Wilson and Bush 41. We went to Hoover's musuem this summer. He was a pretty amazing guy, sort of a Bill Gates of his time, who had the misfortune of being in the White House when the market went to hell.

AG/DC Feb 25 2008 08:40 AM

Hoover's career is amazing. The millions of Europeans saved by the efforts of his organization are hard to estimate. He was abroad on relief projects so much that he was (presumably without precendent) asked to join the British cabinet when he wasn't a British citizen.

Benjamin Grimm Feb 25 2008 09:01 AM

I just looked Bush 41 up on Wikipedia. I hadn't been aware that he served two terms in the House of Representatives in the 1960's. And of course, I also overlooked the fact that he had been elected Vice President twice!

Mendoza Line Feb 25 2008 09:26 AM

My first thought was also Wilson, but I think he was governor of New Jersey once. William McKinley. Only because every other 20th century president I can think of has either been guessed already or had held elective office before becoming President.

Valadius Feb 25 2008 09:28 AM

Taft.

metsmarathon Feb 25 2008 09:36 AM

ford

Frayed Knot Feb 25 2008 09:40 AM

Ford was a long-time HoR member (prior to being an UNelected Veep & Prez) including a long stint as the Republican (minority) leader of the House. Was also on the Warren Comission.

metsguyinmichigan Feb 25 2008 09:47 AM

Valadius wrote: Taft. Ding ding ding! A winner. Taft was tough, and the kind of guy who would never get elected -- or even nominated -- today. Roosevelt's hand-picked choice, and he served in is cabinet or had some other high-ranking post in his administration. The people here in Grand Rapids will tell you that Gerald Ford represented this area for, I think, 25 years before getting tapped by Nixon. He's buried across the street from the newsroom. His family is very, very nice.

metsguyinmichigan Feb 25 2008 09:51 AM

AG/DC wrote: Hoover's career is amazing. The millions of Europeans saved by the efforts of his organization are hard to estimate. He was abroad on relief projects so much that he was (presumably without precendent) asked to join the British cabinet when he wasn't a British citizen. I never knew that as commerce secretary, he drove the push to standardize many things in construction. Stuff like 2 by 4s. Used to be everything had to be customized or made by yourself. If you are ever in West Branch, Iowa -- it's just off one of the main interstates -- take an hour and check out the museum. It was pretty cool.

Rockin' Doc Feb 25 2008 10:29 AM

metsguyinmichigan - "If you are ever in West Branch, Iowa -- ..." Well, there's a destination I'm sure is at the top of everyone's vacation list. I'm sure the Hoover museum would be interesting and very educational. Hoover is one of the Presidents I couldn't remember in the name the presidents quiz, so I could apparently use some education on his life and administration.

sharpie Feb 25 2008 11:03 AM

I like going to Presidential birthplaces/residences. I've been to Washington, Jefferson, both Roosevelts, Coolidge and Eisenhower. Have a long way to go.

DocTee Feb 25 2008 11:08 AM

The Grover Cleveland birthplace in Caldwell NJ is just a short drive from Brooklyn, and it gets two off your list!

AG/DC Feb 25 2008 11:12 AM

That's a good thing to tally. I've not been around my presidents. I've seen Washington's and Jefferson's residencies, natch, and George Mason's, to boot (reccomended). I've seen both their tombs, plus Grant, Kennedy, and Wilson, the only president buried in the District of Columbia. That's not much of a collection, I'm afraid. I may have seen Bush I's Kennebunkport compound outside the wiindow of my jeep.

Nymr83 Feb 25 2008 11:26 AM

isn't Kennedy buried at Arlington? or is that just a memorial sans corpse?

Benjamin Grimm Feb 25 2008 11:27 AM

sharpie wrote: I like going to Presidential birthplaces/residences. I've been to Washington, Jefferson, both Roosevelts, Coolidge and Eisenhower. Have a long way to go. I've been to Sagamore Hill and Hyde Park, which covers the Roosevelts. I've also been to Monticello and Mount Vernon, so I've got Washington and Jefferson covered. I've been to the Hermitage in Nashville, but Andrew Jackson was dead at the time. I've walked past Teddy Roosevelt's birthplace on 23rd (I think) street many times. And I was at Martin Van Buren's house in Kinderhook but was too cash-strapped at the time to spring for the admission fee. I did see his grave, though. I've also seen the graves of Zachary Taylor and JFK, and visited Lincoln's birthplace in Hardin County, Kentucky. (There's a log cabin of dubious authenticity on the premises. It's inside a glass building to protect it from the elements.) And I've visited one Presidential library, Kennedy's, outside of Boston.

Willets Point Feb 25 2008 11:31 AM

Let's see, I've been to: * Mount Vernon (Washington) * Monticello (Jefferson) * Montpellier (Madison) * Ash Lawn-Highland (Monroe) (which I apparently own according to the guy at the ticket booth, because it belongs to my alma mater) * Berkeley Plantation (WH Harrison birthplace) * Hyde Park (FD Roosevelt) Pathetically I've not been to the John Adams NHP in Quincy, MA although I've been to the church where both Adams' are buried (the only place where two presidents are buried side-by-side). Even more pathetically I pass by the JFK birthplace, like, daily and still haven't visited. I've been to the Kennedy and Carter Presidential Libraries as well.

Willets Point Feb 25 2008 11:36 AM

Nymr83 wrote: isn't Kennedy buried at Arlington? or is that just a memorial sans corpse? JFK is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The cemetery however is not in the District of Columbia, it's across the Potomac in Virginia, so I think that's the distinction AG is making.

AG/DC Feb 25 2008 11:37 AM

Oops, add Sagamore hill to my list. Hit it in fourth grade, I think. I remember lots of animal fur.

Willets Point Feb 25 2008 11:39 AM

Benjamin Grimm wrote: And I've visited one Presidential library, Kennedy's, outside of Boston. The JFK Presidential Library actually is firmly within Boston's boundaries. Unless you're one of those sticklers who only count the original colonial boundaries of Boston, and not towns that were later annexed. Then it's in Dorchester.

Rockin' Doc Feb 25 2008 11:40 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Feb 25 2008 11:48 AM

I have visited the homes of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Wilson. It's nearly impossible to travel through Virginia without running across a presidential home, retreat, of gravesite. I've been to see JFK's eternal flame as well as the book depository museum in Dallas. Didn't make it to Taft's burial site when I was at Arlington Cemetary.

AG/DC Feb 25 2008 11:45 AM

Yeah, the cops didn't buy that argument when you ran across Monroe's grave in your SUV and they're all still pretty pissed about that in Richmond.

metsguyinmichigan Feb 25 2008 12:35 PM

Roosevelt's daughter Ethel gave me a tour of Sagamore Hill when I was a kid. It was a friend of a friend kind of thing. My dad told a co-worker that I was fascinated by all things TR, and the co-worker mentioned that he went to church with Mrs. Derby and that she loved giving tours and talking about her father. We met up at the house, and the National Park guards gave her the run of the place. We went in two of the big rooms beyond the gates in the door. When she said things like, "Would you like to sit in my father's chair?" it was hard to comprehend. She passed away not too much later. I was old enough to know how special it was, but still a little young to appreciate what a once-in-a-lifetime thing that would be. My list, including Sagamore Hill: Gerald Ford's museum and burial site across the street FDR's home/museum/gravesite in Hyde Park JFK museum in Boston, gravesite at Arlington U.S. Grant home in Galena, Ill Lincoln home and tomb in Springfield, Ill McKinley tomb in Canton, Ohio Warren Harding's home in Ohio Mt. Vernon Rutherford B. Hayes home and gravesite in Freemont, Ind. Richard Nixon Museum and gravesite in Yorba Linda, Calif. The Hoover Museum and gravesite in West Branch, Iowa Harry S Truman museum and gravesite in Independence , MO and, to be complete, the Dan Quayle Vice Presidential Museum in Indiana I need to spend some time in Virginia to check out some of those sites!

AG/DC Feb 25 2008 12:45 PM

My boss pretends to appreciate high literature. She spends hours at the bookstore, and she may buy big shot books about world concerns, but the ones she buys to read are goofy novelty books. One day around 1979 she bought Name People, a thin book about people who had some famous cultural thiing named after them, with a cover smeared with cartoony illustrations of Theodore Roosevelt, the Earl of Sandwich, and Madame Pompadour. She asks directions from the clerk to a home in Glover Park and an elderly woman with good heariing at the next counter says, "Actually, we're going that way, why don't you come with us?" My boss figures, "How harmful could an elderly couple be?" and agrees. But "us" isn't the old lady and her husband, or even an adult son out escorting her, but the old lady and her chaffeur. Boss settles into the limo and the old lady makes chit chat about Washington, before finally asking her what she bought at borders. She sheepishly pulls out Name People. The old lady takes it, stares disapprovingly and says, "That's a terrible likeness of Daddy." Teddy's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

metsguyinmichigan Feb 25 2008 12:53 PM

Sweet story! Apparently she was quite the pistol.

themetfairy Feb 25 2008 01:02 PM

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Sweet story! Apparently she was quite the pistol. Yes - we were at Sagomore Hill back in November, and our guide had plenty of stories about Alice.

AG/DC Feb 25 2008 01:09 PM

That couldn't have been Borders if it was 1979.

Frayed Knot Feb 25 2008 01:48 PM

Very few things in the village of Oyster Bay are NOT named for TR -- schools, buildings, parks, etc. I stop by his gravesite about once a year or so as I sometimes am biking up in that neck of the woods. He's buried not on the grounds of Sagamore Hill but a mile or two away in a church site much more along the beaten path. 26 steps takes you from the gate and on up the hill to where he, the wife, and most if not all of the kids are hanging out these days (as he was Prez #26). I think I did the tour of just about all the Virginia presidents back in my youth.