Presidents who Are Good to Mention in the First Post of the Year on the Last Day of January

-George Washington
-Abraham Lincoln
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
-All the other good ones

Presidents Who Presided before the Invention of Modern Toilet Paper

Presumably, these presidents never benefitted from modern toilet paper, invented in 1857. Think about it.

-George Washington*
-John Adams*
-Thomas Jefferson*
-James Monroe*
-James Madison*
-John Quincy Adams*
-Andrew Jackson*
-Martin Van Buren
-William Henry Harrison*
-John Tyler
-James K. Polk*
-Zachary Taylor*
-Millard Fillmore
-Franklin Pierce

*died prior to 1857

Happy America Day 2011: A History of the Hot Dog and Presidents’ Favorite Hot Dog Condiments

For the third straight America Day, more popularly known as Independence Day or “July 4th,” LP takes a special look back at the holiday that not only made the United States what it is today, but also represents Americans as a people. So sit back with your mustard-and-relish-slathered hot dog, your homemade charcoal-grilled bacon doublecheeseburger, your ale of choice, and your sixer of antacid, and please enjoy this special America Day list (and a bonus history).

Of course, the most American way to celebrate America Day is with a good, old-fashioned American hot dog, and the presidents from Washington onward recognized this.  Of course, the hot dog itself only became available to the general public in the early 20th century, but its history goes back much, much further than that.

When the Articles of Confederation were ratified in 1781, the following passage was included in them:

Upon a certain passage of Time, those most respeckted [sic] and honourable Senior Members of this Government will have earned the privilege of consuming a special Dish, prepared specifically for…this Nation.

The food was intended as a reward for long-serving elected representatives who had performed their duties admirably and honestly.  Soon after the passage of the Articles, however, it was quickly forgotten, as no one was sure exactly how to implement it.  The government would get as far as naming a Chef General in 1783, but who he was has been lost to history.  His only official creation, though, would be what we know as today as the hot dog.

When the Articles were abandoned for the Constitution in 1787, the passage was dropped due to the predominant thought that it was a joke that was overlooked (many of the delegates at the Constitutional Convention would actually refer to the “Dish Passage” as a metaphor for the Articles of Confederation).  Years later, after the election of Washington, Vice-President Adams was sorting through some papers when he found an original draft of the recipe for the hot dog by the Chef General.  Thinking this the work of President Washington’s personal chef (who was prone to leaving his papers around), Adams sent it to the man.

The chef’s name was Hercules, and surprisingly, he was a very literate slave that Washington had brought with him from Mount Vernon.  Hercules was astounded upon reading the recipe.  While he did not leave a personal diary, Martha Washington did, and historians believe that this was the scene when the chef read the recipe for the first time:

Suddenly, from the Kitchen, I heard a whoop…such as I had never heard before.  I rushed in to find Hercules grasping a Note…and I enquired as to what was the matter.  He responded that nothing was wrong but that the President would soon enjoy a Meal fit for a man of his esteemd [sic] Position.

Hercules prepared the first hot dog using scraps of meat from prior presidential dinners.  Anecdotally, Washington’s first taste of a hot dog was simply outstanding; in stories passed down orally through the governmental chef corps, the president exclaimed his approval of the food and demanded more as he scarfed down the rest of it.  Knowing how good it was, Washington later told Hercules that this meal would be a symbol of the fledgling nation, and as a show of respect for the country, each newly-elected president would dine on an “open-faced Columbia-meat sandwich” (the phrase “hot dog” would come into use with the food’s spread to the common people in the early 20th century).

-George Washington: none (condiments had not yet been discovered, although he preferred his with a nice brandy)
-Thomas Jefferson: a primitive form of ketchup which was more like crushed tomatoes in a tomato juice
-William Henry Harrison: no condiments, no bun
-Zachary Taylor: oddly, liked a fruit spread on a cold hot dog
-Millard Fillmore: didn’t like it, was a dick
-Ulysses S. Grant: mustard, onions, relish, no ketchup
-Grover Cleveland: ketchup, mustard, spicy relish, onions, a pickle, and another mystery relish
-Benjamin Harrison: ketchup, just ketchup
-William Howard Taft: another hot dog
-Calvin Coolidge: none, preferred to let the meat do the talking
-Jimmy Carter: it’s rather obvious–honey
-Ronald Reagan: American condiments
-Bill Clinton: whatever you want, baby, he’s fine with it

Past America Day columns:
Happy America Day 2010: Presidents’ Favorite America Day Pastimes
America Day 2009: This America Day in History

Happy America Day 2010: Presidents’ Favorite America Day Pastimes

Once again, in honor of America Day, also known as Independence Day or Separation Sunday, LP looks back at those great moments associated with the day. This year, we present the favorite July 4th holiday pastimes of our most-esteemed presidents.

-George Washington: created makeshift pinatas of various British officers and threw Brit-bashing parties
-Thomas Jefferson: bought some property
-Andrew Jackson: in alternating years, he would either duel or invite the entire state of Tennessee to the White House for a party, consistently during which several pillars from the presidential mansion would go missing only to be found in various places around Washington (1829: the Potomac, 1831: O’Malley’s Tavern, 1835: in front of Congress)
-William Henry Harrison: would normally breathe
-Abraham Lincoln: would light fireworks off from his top hat
-Ulysses S. Grant: annually stopped laying siege to Vicksburg (after annually laying siege to Vicksburg a few months before hand)
-James A. Garfield: played some tackle football on the White House lawn, then some baseball, then he’d strap on some blades and play high-contact roller hockey in the White House Roller Hockey Rink (which he had installed), and then finish the day with a best-of-seven street-rules basketball series and a lemonade
-Chester A. Arthur: took a shot and toasted himself
-Theodore Roosevelt: did things so amazingly manly and awesome that to reprint them would be an affront to the Roosevelt estate, and even a mention of such things warrants an apology (those being the circumstances, the letter is in the mail)
-William Howard Taft: shifted in his seat
-Warren G. Harding: went to Toronto one year (it was ok)
-Herbert Hoover: lit his cigar with $100 bills
-Dwight D. Eisenhower: liked to add or take away a star on the flag each year to see if anyone would notice
-Jimmy Carter: celebrated the Fourth the traditional Georgia way, with peanuts and an ATV
-Ronald Reagan: would draw his face on $10 bills
-Bill Clinton: cannot remember

Presidents’ First Choices for Vice President

Due to the nature of party politics, presidents do not always get to run with the people that they would prefer to be their vice presidents. Here is a short list of some people that the presidents would have rather served with:

George Washington: None

Andrew Jackson: Henry Clay-Jackson dreamed about making Henry Clay his vice president so that he could rub Clay’s face in the fact that he was president and Clay was not.

William McKinley: Mark Hanna-McKinley thought that Hanna would be a better vice president than Theodore Roosevelt, who he considered wild and unpredictable. However, some historians believe that Cuba would have invaded the United States in 1902 had Hanna been in the Oval Office.

Richard M. Nixon: Sammy Davis Jr.

Presidential Rankings Based on Google Search Results

Here’s an interesting bit of information: the following list is how the presidents are ranked based on the number of results returned on Google for the search term “president x” where x equals the president’s first and last name. There are definitely some surprises (11.5 million for John Tyler?) and some not-so-surprises (Lincoln, Washington, Kennedy in the top 10).

Also, these results are just for those presidents no longer living. Clinton’s 25-million+ would have skewed the rankings, and we would not want that. Why? There’s so much more we can do with this information. Check LP tomorrow and see.

(accessed April 12-13, 2010)

1. Abraham Lincoln … 22.8 million
2. George Washington … 22.6 million
3. Thomas Jefferson … 15.7 million
4. Andrew Jackson … 16 million
5. James Madison … 15.8 million
6. Franklin D. Roosevelt … 13.5 million*
7. Andrew Johnson … 13.2 million
8. John F. Kennedy … 13 million**
9. John Tyler … 11.5 million
10. Theodore Roosevelt … 6.72 million***
11. Woodrow Wilson … 5.57 million
12. Dwight D. Eisenhower … 5.4 million
13. Richard Nixon … 4.37 million
14. James Knox Polk … 4.17 million
15. James Monroe … 3.71 million
16. Ronald Reagan … 3.19 million
17. Lyndon Johnson … 2.8 million
18. James Buchanan … 2.37 million
19. John Adams … 2.23 million
20. Benjamin Harrison … 2.17 million
21. Gerald Ford … 2.08 million
22. Herbert Hoover … 2.08 million
23. John Quincy Adams … 2 million
24. Franklin Pierce … 1.96 million
25. Zachary Taylor … 1.52 million
26. William Henry Harrison … 1.46 million
27. James Garfield … 1.37 million
28. William McKinley … 1.3 million
29. Ulysses S. Grant … 1.27 million
30. Grover Cleveland … 1.21 million
31. Harry S Truman … 1.18 million
32. Martin van Buren … 952,000
33. William Howard Taft … 868,000
34. Calvin Coolidge … 864,000
35. Warren G. Harding … 804,000
36. Rutherford B. Hayes … 539,000
37. Chester A. Arthur … 301,000****
38. Millard Fillmore … 254,000

*as Franklin Delano Roosevelt
** as John Kennedy
***as Teddy Roosevelt
****as Chester Arthur

Presidents You Can Imagine Breaking and Riding a Dinosaur

-George Washington
-James K. Polk
-Andrew Johnson
-Ulysses S. Grant
-Theodore Roosevelt

Presidents with the Strangest Nicknames

-Iron Butt (Richard Nixon)
-Uncle Cornpone (Lyndon Johnson)
-Wobbly Warren (Warren G. Harding)
-The Human Iceberg* (Benjamin Harrison)
-Uncle Jumbo (Grover Cleveland)
-Ten-Cent Jimmie (James Buchanan)
-His Rotundity (John Adams)
-Ol’ Woodbiter** (George Washington)

*NOTE: This might actually be kind of kickass.
**NOTE: This is the only fake one…the rest are true for once.

Presidents on Mt. Rushmore and Reasons Why

-George Washington (first president, great leader)
-Thomas Jefferson (wrote the Declaration of Independence, bought half the country)
-Abraham Lincoln (freed the slaves, won the war)
-James Buchanan (looked like Theodore Roosevelt, was a pretty nice guy)

Presidents Who Will Turn this Car Around if You Don’t Stop that, They Swear to God

-Washington
-Jefferson
-Van Buren
-Nixon
-Clinton