Happy Monday President's Day!

I appreciate the Presidents giving me a long weekend.  I like four day weekends.  They are fun.  Not super productive, but fun.

So, here is the history nerd in me wishing you a Happy Monday and President’s Day.

Things you really didn’t need to know about our Presidents but are now stuck with you

·         John Tyler liked to make babies, 15 of them.

·         Calvin Coolidge was weird. 

·         Nixon’s poker winnings helped fund his first Congressional Campaign.

·         Zebulon Pike sent Thomas Jefferson two bears, which he kept as pets, on the White House lawn.

·         Chester Arthur made President’s Day an official Federal Holiday. Thanks Buddy!

·         Franklin Pierce had the first Christmas Tree in the White House, he also caused “Bleeding Kansas” because he thought people could work out that whole thing on their own.

·         George Washington was opposed to political parties.

·         Whiskey was Andrew Johnson’s friend before his inauguration (you think he got it from George Washington’s Distillery?)  A few years later though, Rutherford B. Hayes banned alcohol from the White House (HOW DID HE SURVIVE?!?)

·         James Madison was Princeton’s first grad student.  He declared war on Britain in 1812.  When was the War of 1812 fought?  People always used to ask me that….like I wouldn’t catch on…

·         Benjamin Harrison was a brigadier general and fought in the Civil War.  Which side did he fight on?  Six new states joined the UNION while he was president.  He was also only two inches taller than me.

·         It’s all Martin Van Buren’s fault why we have and use the word “okay”

·         William Taft got stuck in a White House bathtub.

·         Ronald Reagan was a stand-up comic in Vegas for a few weeks.  He loved jelly beans so much that Jelly Belly created a blueberry flavor so he could have red, white and blue jellybeans on his desk.

·         John Quincy Adams liked to bathe, in the nude, in the Potomac.  He also wore the same hat for 10 years and had a pet alligator.

·         Woodrow Wilson was the most educated President with a Ph.D.  He was dyslexic and a school teacher.  The 19^th Amendment passed during his term.

·         Harry Truman.  Thank you.  For giving me an extra day off work in May!  This year.  Three day weekend!