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If you are on Barack Obama’s email list, you may have noticed the weirdly personal subject lines. Jason English has, and made a quiz about it. Some of the lines are actual presidential email subjects, and some are from Jason’s aunt. Now, Jason’s aunt doesn’t send me anything, but just like you, I have relatives who send me similar messages, so I scored only 74%. Maybe you will do better. Link
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President Cleveland
When Grover Cleveland contracted cancer, it didn’t kill his career; it killed someone else’s.
In early June of 1893, President Grover Cleveland discovered a large tumor on the roof of his mouth. The cancer was progressing quickly. Doctors determined that if the patient were to survive, the growth had to be removed. But the procedure was complicated, and Cleveland’s doctors feared the surgery could trigger a stroke. There was also a 15 percent chance in those days that the president could die under the knife. After weighing his options, Cleveland chose to have the tumor removed, under one condition: The operation had to be conducted in total secrecy. The president feared that Wall Street -already reeling from falling stock in the midst of a depression- would panic if news of his illness leaked. Even his vice president, Adlai Stevenson, was to be kept in the dark.
On the morning of June 30th, under the cover of night, President Cleveland and six of the nation’s finest physicians assembled on board the Oneida, a yacht anchored in New York harbor. Sitting in a deck chair, the president smoked cigars and chatted amiably with the men as the boat set sail for Long Island Sound. The following morning, the doctors scrambled below deck to prepare for the surgery. In lieu of an operating table, a large chair was bound to the mast in the yacht’s parlor. A single light bulb, connected to a portable battery, would provide all the light. The doctors boiled their instruments and pulled crisp white aprons over their dark suits. Shortly after noon, the president entered the parlor and took his seat.
Using nitrous oxide and ether as anesthetics, the doctors removed the tumor, along with five teeth and much of Cleveland’s upper left palate and jawbone. The procedure lasted 90 minutes. It also took place wholly within the patient’s mouth, so that no external scars would betray the clandestine operation.
Four days later, on July 5, Cleveland was dropped off at his summer home on Cape Cod.
He healed remarkably fast. By the middle of July, he was fitted with a vulcanized rubber prosthetic that plugged the hole in his mouth and restored his normal speaking voice. All the while, the public was told that the president had merely suffered a toothache.
THE HEALTH CARE CONTROVERSY
Elisha Edwards
On August 29, The Philadelphia Press published an expose by Elisha Jay Edwards. The headline read, “The President a Very Sick Man.” Edwards, the paper’s Manhattan correspondent, had been tipped off by a New York doctor who’s heard rumors of a secret surgery. After some additional digging, Edwards located Ferdinand Hasbrouck, the dentist who had administered the anesthetic to Cleveland, and verified the details.
The Philadelphia Press story was remarkably accurate. In fact, it still stands as one of the greatest scoops in the history of American journalism. But it wasn’t perceived that way by the public. The Cleveland administration categorically denied the charges and launched a smear campaign to discredit and embarrass the reporter. Newspapers denounced Edwards as a “disgrace to journalism” and a “calamity liar.” The tactics were effective. The public sided with Cleveland, who’d built his reputation as the “Honest President.” Meanwhile, Edwards’ career was effectively ruined. For the next 15 years, the veteran reporter could barely find work. In 1909, he landed a job as a columnist for a struggling young newspaper called The Wall Street Journal. But Edwards’ career was still tainted by the allegations that he’d faked the story about Grover Cleveland.
Dr. W.W. Keen
One of the doctors who performed the surgery, W.W. Keen, always regretted how Edwards had been so unjustly maligned. In 1917, a quarter-century after the operation and a decade after Cleveland’s death, Keen finally decided to do something about it. He published a confessional in The Saturday Evening Post, hoping to “vindicate Mr. Edwards’ character as a truthful correspondent.” The admission was successful. The old newspaperman was inundated with congratulatory letters and telegrams, and the outpouring deeply moved him. Edwards even wrote to Keen to thank him for restoring his reputation.
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The article above is reprinted with permission from the July-August 2011 issue of mental_floss magazine. Get a subscription to mental_floss and never miss an issue!
Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ website and blog for more fun stuff!
George Washington didn’t look forward to being the first president of the nation he helped to create, but there was no one else seriously considered. He was elected unanimously in February of 1789, but was not certified by Congress until April.
Because the vote counting had been long delayed, Washington, 57, felt the crush of upcoming public business and decided to set out promptly for New York on April 16, accompanied in his elegant carriage by Thomson and aide David Humphreys. His diary entry conveys a sense of foreboding: “About ten o’clock, I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity and, with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set out for New York…with the best dispositions to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations.” Waving goodbye was Martha Washington, who wouldn’t join him until mid-May. She watched her husband of 30 years depart with a mixture of bittersweet sensations, wondering “when or whether he will ever come home again.” She had long doubted the wisdom of this final act in his public life. “I think it was much too late for him to go into public life again,” she told her nephew, “but it was not to be avoided. Our family will be deranged as I must soon follow him.”
Washington knew the job would be difficult, but he didn’t know exactly what it would entail, as no one had held the office before. He knew the citizens had high expectations that he might be able to deliver. He also knew that he was setting precedents, and that future presidents would be compared with the first one. Read about his reluctant step into history at Smithsonian. Link
(Illustration: Joe Ciardiello)
Jack Kennedy was president of the United States from January 1961 to November 1963. Jack Donaghy is a character on the TV show 30 Rock. In today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, you’ll be given quotes, and you decide which Jack said it. It’s not as easy as you think -especially for someone who either hasn’t seen the TV show or can’t remember the presidency. I scored 67%, because I haven’t seen the TV show. Link
President Obama upheld a presidential tradition and pardoned the official White House turkey yesterday in Washington. Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation and the Poultry and Egg National Board have given a turkey to the US president as a gift. But the pardons are a relatively recent innovation.
Since then, presidents have been more likely to call the turkey dinner than give it a reprieve. But a notable exception occurred in 1963, when President Kennedy, referring to the turkey given to him, said, “Let’s just keep him.” It wasn’t until 1989, during the first Thanksgiving of President George H.W. Bush, that a turkey was officially pardoned.
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have all upheld the turkey pardoning tradition. However, some confusion still abounds regarding the true origin of this practice. Some claim that Harry Truman pardoned the turkey he received in 1947, but the Truman Library has been unable to prove this as fact. Others say that the tradition dates back to Abraham Lincoln’s pardoning of his son Tad’s pet turkey.
SFGate details the fates of the pardoned turkeys, including the 2010 bird. Link
Presidential Ham is a project by Portland-based artist bijijoo featuring US presidents holding ham hocks. That is all.
Link – via Gorilla Mask
See also: Sweet Meat plushies over at the NeatoShop | Presidential Diseases
The opposite of FAILblog, Succeed Blog is all about the win in all things culture, pop or not. Here’s a recent submission of a carefully carved watermelon, just in time for Spring.. Link.
When we think about presidential tragedies, we most often go straight to the assassinations – especially Abraham Lincoln and JFK. But those are certainly not the only disasters to happen to a president. These sad tales are sure to tug at your heartstrings.
They say the death of your child is the worst thing that can happen to a parent. Poor Franklin Pierce suffered through the death of all three of his children and the subsequent depression his wife went through afterward. First, Franklin’s namesake, Franklin Jr., died just three days after his birth in 1836. Although devastated, the Pierces gave parenthood another shot and were blessed with another little boy, Frank Robert, three years later. In 1841, another son was added to the household – Benjamin “Bennie” Pierce. The next two years were probably the happiest ones the Pierces ever knew – the family was healthy and Franklin had a prestigious job as a senator from New Hampshire. But then dark days hit again: Frank Robert was stricken with epidemic typhus and died in 1943 at the young age of four. Pierce’s wife, Jane, became quite clingy to their remaining son, Bennie, and doted on him almost fanatically.
Things went fine for the next 10 years, although Jane was rather upset when her husband was elected President of the United States in 1852. She wasn’t a fan of his political career and absolutely loathed Washington; spending at least the next four years there was not at the top of her list. Turns out that was the least of her worries: in 1853, President-elect Pierce, his wife and his only remaining son were taking the train from Boston when their car derailed and rolled down an embankment. There were some injuries, but only one fatality: Bennie Pierce. His parents were absolutely devastated. Pierce became an alcoholic and Jane was so empty that staff referred to her as “The Ghost of the White House.” Pierce has never gone down in history as being one of our best presidents, but it’s pretty hard to fault the guy for being a little distracted. It’s no wonder that his own party campaigned for another candidate when election time rolled around four years later. Their slogan? “Anybody but Pierce.”
Abraham Lincoln suffered similar losses. Abe was known to adore children and was thrilled to have four little boys of his own: Robert Todd, born in 1843; Edward Baker, born in 1846; William “Willie” Wallace in 1850; and Thomas “Tad” in 1853. Only one of these boys would make it to adulthood, although two of them did outlive Lincoln himself. Edward Baker – “Eddie” to his mother and “Eddy” to his father – died just a month shy of his fourth birthday in 1850. We’re still not exactly sure what killed him. Although it was called “chronic consumption” at the time, some historians now think that Eddy might have suffered from medullary thyroid cancer.
The Lincolns were terribly sad but didn’t waste any time continuing to expand the family: Willie was born just 10 months after Eddy’s death. When Abe was elected in 1961, he brought quite the rowdy bunch with him to the White House. Tad and Willie delighted in overturning furniture, imitating the soldiers on the lawn of the Executive Mansion and playing with the many gifts the American public showered on them. One of Lincoln’s visitors once walked into his office to find the Commander in Chief pinned to the floor in a playful wrestling match with his sons.
The happiness didn’t last long, though – after riding his pony in bad weather, Willie got really sick. Tad wasn’t doing too well either. After being sick for weeks, Willie died on February 20, 1862. Today, we think they boys may have contracted typhoid fever from drinking contaminated water. Tad cried for nearly a month straight after his brother’s death, and Mary was so distraught that her husband thought she might have been driven insane.
Tad lived through the death of his father three years later, but died of tuberculosis at the age of 18 in 1871. No wonder Mary Todd Lincoln was thought to be a little odd later in life – after the death of three of her sons and the assassination of her husband, don’t you think she earned the right to be a bit eccentric?
As outgoing and charismatic as Teddy was, you’d never guess that he was suppressing deep sorrow, but he was. Teddy met the love of his life, Alice Hathaway Lee, when Teddy was visiting her next-door neighbors. It was love at first sight for Roosevelt, who later wrote “As long as I live, I shall never forget how sweetly she looked.” That was October of 1878. By Thanksgiving, Teddy decided he was going to marry Alice, but waited until June to formally propose. She coyly held him off another six months, but eventually accepted. They fittingly announced their engagement on Valentine’s Day, 1880. She would be dead four years later.
Alice and Teddy were happily married for about two and a half years when she got pregnant with their first child, a little girl they would name Alice. Sadly, the childbirth didn’t go so well (partially due to her undiagnosed Bright’s Disease) and Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt died two days later. Coincidentally, Teddy’s mother died the exact same day. Roosevelt was completely distraught and didn’t know what to do with himself, let alone an infant daughter. He wrote a short tribute to her, saying “The light has gone out of my life,” and never spoke of her in public again. He got upset when others mentioned her in his presence and refused to talk to his daughter about her mother, telling her to go ask her aunt instead. In fact, T.R. wouldn’t even call his daughter by her given name, preferring to call her “Baby Lee,” and left her in the care of her aunt for a couple of years while he went off to North Dakota to try to pull himself together. Roosevelt didn’t even mention his first wife in his autobiographies later in life, when presumably his wounds had some time to heal.
He eventually remarried a childhood friend named Edith Carow, whom his first daughter Alice absolutely loathed. Alice remarked many times later in life that she felt as if her father had pushed her away her entire life and loved her “one sixth” as much as his other children.
You know about these historic events, but do you remember who was president of the United States when it happened? This Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss will strain your historic perspective. I scored 50%, mainly by remembering the events of my lifetime. Link
Previously: Who Was President? Part One.
The story of where the desk in the Oval Office came from is more intricate and exciting than you ever imagined.
In 1845, famed explorer Sir John Franklin set out in the Terror and Erebus to discover the Northwest Passage, thought to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by a water route above Canada. Last seen by a whaling ship in Baffin Bay, the Franklin expedition disappeared into the Arctic wilderness.
Years passed and, despite the ample stores the expedition had laid in, concern grew. The British Admiralty launched a rescue mission in 1852, led by Captain Belcher, aboard the Resolute, Pioneer, Assistance, North Star and Intrepid. Captain Belcher, a scientist, circumnavigator, war hero, venereal wife-suer, and controversially well-loved or hated explorer, bottled some beer for this cruise which resulted in the biggest and most expensive ebay mistake ever made.
You might wonder what any of this quote has to do with the Oval Office. For this to make sense, you’ll have to read the whole story. And then follow the many links for more information. Link
Vlosich said: 'I've been drawing since I was two years old, but the real magic on the Etch A Sketch started in 1989 on our family trip to Washington D.C.
'Before we left, we stopped over my grandparents' house to say goodbye. My mom pulled out her old 1960's Etch A Sketch so my brother and I would have something to play with in the car. I etched a picture of the U.S. Capitol. 'When I was finished, my mom and dad were amazed! My dad saw it and immediately stopped at a gas station to take a picture of my creation before I erased it.
From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by 
Whether you love Obama or hate him, you’ll be happy to know there is now a tool to track how he has lived up to his campaign promises.
The Obameter has a compiled list of about 500 promises he made during the election run and it records if he: kept the promise, compromised, broke the promise, stalled the promise, is in the works on the issue or has not taken action on the promise. So far he’s stalled one, compromised on one and kept five, but it will be nice to see how he does in the long run.
I wish we had these for every president. I’d love to know how Kennedy, Lincoln or Andrew Jackson did on their promises.
Link Via Good Magazine
(image credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
McSweeney’s has a fantastic compilation of childrens’ letters to Obama. Some of them are so adorably fantastic. It seems to be kids between 5 and 12 mostly. Even if you don’t like Obama, you still can appreciate the innocence of their words.
Dear President Obama,
When you are president, don’t eat junk food. Junk food makes you fat. Your family shouldn’t eat junk food, either, because it is not healthy. Obama, you rock.
Amy Ramirez, age 8
San FranciscoDear President Obama, Are you going to be pictured on our money? How do you get in the White House? Do you like Abraham Lincoln? Do you have a big backyard? Martin Luther King Jr. had big fans. How many fans do you have? You could help us by giving us food. I am Luis Ramirez. I go to school at Mayberry. I like to play video games.
Luis Ramirez, age 8
Los Angeles
BellaSmiles, a member of the Etsy online marketplace, has come up with this creative piece of art which is described as “The coolest president meets the coolest wookie”.
Link – via The Official Star Wars Blog
Wow, what a day! Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you all know that Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States. History is made today, as Americans welcome their first African American president.
Did you watch Obama’s inauguration? (I watched most of it, then had to leave for an appointment, which I just got back from) What’s up with Chief Justice Roberts fumbling of the oath. I <3 Aretha Franklin’s awesome hat!
ABC News has a pretty neat coverage: Link (Photo: Elise Amendola/AP)
While everyone is watching the inauguration events in Washington, a crew of workers will be busy behind the scenes making sure that president Bush is moved out of the White House, and president Obama and his family are moved in. Former chief White House usher Gary Walterstells CNN how it is done.
In the morning, after the Bushes and Obamas depart the executive mansion for the Capitol Hill swearing-in ceremony, moving trucks will roll up to the south side of the White House, Walters said.
The drivers put down their tailgates, allowing most of the White House’s 93 staff members to begin unloading Obama family items, he said.
“Staff members all have been given very specific jobs on that day, almost down to the minute as to what their responsibilities are,” Walters said.
The move is designed to be seamless, painless and invisible while millions of Washington visitors — and millions more watching on TV — follow the inauguration ceremonies and the parade that follows.
By about 5 p.m., before the Obamas move from the parade viewing stand to their new home, the presidential move must be complete.
