As I sit here, the morning of Nov. 9, I feel tired, sad, disappointed, angry and a host of other emotions. I am very afraid. I am afraid for myself as a woman, for every person of color, for immigrants, for LGBTQ+ individuals and I am afraid for those children who will grow up in a country of hatred, misogyn, and bigotry. I, like so many others, want to just give up, hide under a blanket in bed and cry until the scary Orange Man disappears. This is not the responsible thing to do. Instead, I must lend my efforts towards stopping any damage Trump will try to do to this country. But, before all of us hit the street with signs and megaphones, I would like to try put out some positivity that we all so desperately need. So, without further ado, here are the best, and weirdest, facts about U.S. President I could find (courtesy of NBC and mashable).
1. Washington made rye whiskey, apple brandy and peach brandy in his own distillery.
2. James Madison is the shortest person to hold the office of President at 5’4”.
3. John Quincy Adams would skinny dip in the Potomac River. He preferred to go in the morning.
4. Millard Fillmore married his teacher when he was 19 years old.
5. Andrew Jackson taught his parrot how to swear, and some say it starting cussing at Jackson’s funeral.
6. John Tyler was a really good violinist and would entertain guests at the White House by playing for them.
7. William Henry Harrison had a pet billy goat at the White House.
8. Zachary Taylor kept his favorite horse on the White House lawns.
9. Abraham Lincoln was a licensed bartender.
10. Andrew Johnson was a trained tailor and made his own suits while president.
11. Ulysses S. Grant got a speeding ticket for $20 because he rode his horse too fast on a street in D.C.
12. The first telephone in the White House was installed under Rutherford B. Hayes. The telephone number was simply “1”.
13. James Garfield could write in Greek with one hand and in Latin with the other hand at the same time.
14. Chester Arthur is said to have owned 80 pairs of pants.
15. Warren Harding lost a set of White House china in a poker game.
16. Calvin Coolidge would press all the buttons in the Oval Office at once, alerting all of the staff, and then hide and watching everyone run it. He used this method to find out who was working that day.
17. Herbert Hoover’s family had two pet alligators that sometimes visited the White House.
18. Lyndon B. Johnson had a vinyl helicopter seat in the Oval Office because he loved helicopters so much.
19. Lyndon B. Johnson also loved to talk about his penis and nicknamed it “Jumbo.” One time a reporter asked him why American troops were in Vietnam, and Johnson unzipped his pants, took out Jumbo, and said “This is why!”
20. Gerald Ford was once on the cover of “Cosmopolitan” magazine.
21. Bill Clinton once aced a “My Little Pony” quiz on NPR.
22. Barack Obama collects comic books, and his favorites are “Conan the Barbarian” and “Spiderman.”
Today marks the beginning of a time of hardship, fear, anger and sadness for many Americans and people around the world. These next four years will not be easy for so many of us. However, we must always keep our perspective. I compiled this list in an attempt to make at least one person smile and to remind everyone that our country will go on. The U.S. has gone through so many periods of suffering and pain…but we are all still here. And we will all still be here four years from now—even if we wished we were in Canada.
