top of page

Episode 27 - Presidential Potpourri

The Address of the Address


I do think it's weird that Washington didn't give an address so much as write one. Even the Gettysburg Address was shouted out to a crowd that...well, couldn't really hear it. But still - it was an address to the nation, but one without a physical address.


Counting Commanders-in-Chief


Look, it's weird that we just count a contiguous presidency as A Single Presidency. Every two years - the start of the term - Congress gets counted anew, even if every single Member were reelected. As of this writing, we're in the 118th Congress. Why not count presidential terms that way? For one thing, it would be easier, right? Just split the Congressional number in half, and instead of President #46, Joe Biden holds the 59th Presidency. You get two terms? Good for you! You're President during the X and X+1 Presidencies. Boom. Done. Consistent.


The War of Whenever


It's not as much a mind-blowing fact that the Battle of New Orleans took place AFTER the Treaty of Ghent, ending the war, but it's just kind of silly. The problem is that the treaty was signed in Belgium after four months of negotiations, so getting word back to the United States, much less New Orleans, was going to take some time. But still...there were ongoing treaty negotiations and we kept fighting the whole time?


A King for a President


Leslie Lynch King, Sr. was an abusive alcoholic, and his wife left him soon after their baby was born, getting a divorce a few years later, which had to have been difficult in Omaha (!) in 1913 (!!). Gerald Ford, Jr. grew up not knowing his "real" name until his parents explained it to him as a teenager. He had it legally changed at 22, which is good. His creep of a biological rather refused to pay child support, even after he inherited the equivalent of almost $700,000 in today's money. Rumor has it that the first time Leslie King visited his biological son, he handed him a whopping $25. After years of refusing to provide for his care. He died in obscurity in 1941. Good.




1 view0 comments

Comments


bottom of page