The Essential Book Of Presidential Trivia

[william42]

The Essential Book Of Presidential Trivia
by Noah McCullough

Sunday, May 21, 2006; D08

There are so many facts packed into this 279-page book that you might call its 10-year-old author a Noah-it-all. Indeed, Noah McCullough has been learning everything he can about our presidents since he was 5. Here's some fun stuff he found out:
· Lyndon Johnson held a barbecue on the roof of the White House.
· George Washington put fine furs on his horses.
· Gerald Ford was vice president and president without being elected to either job.
· Grover Cleveland had a rubber jaw (after some surgery).
· Dolley Madison (not a president, we know, but we had to include a "girl fact") liked to chew tobacco.
· John Quincy Adams kept a pet alligator in a White House bathtub.
· Ulysses Grant got a speeding ticket on M Street while riding his horse.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

[Miss Markie]

I think Grant was not just riding but was driving a buggy or some rig through town with a team of horses! He did like speed.

And John Quincy Adams liked to walk from the White House to the Potomac, take off all his clothes and skinny dip. He was once held 'hostage' in the river by a female reporter whom he had refused to give an interview to. She took his clothes and held them until he (obviously!) gave in!!
I collect, BTW, 'dead presidents' and have visited the graves of 20 so far!

[ole]

I think Grant was not just riding but was driving a buggy or some rig through town with a team of horses! He did like speed.

I had read somewhere that his staff was constantly grumbling because Grant travelled only at a full gallop. That he had horses fall on him more than once could add to that story.
Ole

[Miss Markie]

The man mainly survived West Point, by many accounts, because he was just a natural with horses and I think he and the horse might have been 'one' when he was riding. They almost considered him like a 'horse whisperer' in his early years.