President’s Day 2012, Odd Presidential Facts and New Ratings

+odd presidential facts

+Odd presidential facts - President’s Day 2012, Odd Presidential Facts and New Ratings, This Presidents Day, we're vetoing trite trivia about cherry trees and log cabins. Read up on some lesser-known presidential tidbits that may make you look at these Oval Office occupants in a different light.

It is President′s Day 2012, so it is a good time to recall some odd presidential facts, as well as take a look at some recent new ratings of past presidents. While most people are familiar with old wise tales about George Washington and the cherry tree, or Abraham Lincoln and the log cabin, fewer people may know which president was known for swimming nude in the Potomac River? Or who was our heaviest president? Which was known as a book worm for being the speed-reading president? A new Gallup survey finds that Ronald Reagan is the most popular president since the end of World War Two. A new book rates Calvin Coolidge as the best since World War One.
Speaking of Calvin Coolidge, he was known as the president who liked Vaseline rubs. Born on the 4th of July in 1872, Coolidge was the only president to be sworn into office by his father after the sudden death of Warren Harding in 1923. In case you were wondering, John Quincy Adams was known for his naked plunges into the Potomac River. William Howard Taft, who was once stuck in a bathtub, was our heaviest president. Jimmy Carter was a speed reader.

Steven Hayward′s new book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents, rates all of the presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama. Hayward uses a very simple standard for his rating system. ″Does the President take seriously his oath of office to ″preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States?″″ For this reason, Hayward grades every Democrat president in the past 100 years, except for Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy with a big fat ′F′ for failure, including Barack Obama! Coolidge gets an A+ whereas Reagan only gets an A-. George W. Bush gets a B+ while his father rates only a flat B, mainly because of the senior′s Supreme Court picks.

Naturally, many people will use President′s Day 2012 to trash their least favorite leaders in history. Trivia like the odd presidential facts help others embrace their favorites like which president was swimming nude in the Potomac River or who was the heaviest president? While it is true that Abraham Lincoln was raised in a log cabin, George Washington did not cut down a cherry tree. We can point to surveys like those by Gallup which show Ronald Reagan being the most popular president since World War Two. Or books like Steven Hayward′s that rate Calvin Coolidge the best since World War One. Like them or not, our presidents are part of our history. To know them is to know ourselves

A songbird fan

This president preferred pet songbirds to first felines and presidential pooches. He collected and trained many specimens of mimus polyglottos on his Virginia estate, but his favorite was "Dick."

Pint-sized president

He's regarded as the smallest leader in U.S. history, reportedly weighing less than 100 pounds and standing no taller than 5 feet 4 inches

.A curious nickname

The president got the nickname, "The Last of the Cocked Hats," because he was the last president with Revolutionary credentials.

Skinny dipper-in-chief

He loved collecting his thoughts with early morning nude swims in a nearby river

An OK guy

He often gets credit for originating the term "OK," thanks to a nickname associated with him and his hometown.

A White House horse

This president brought his war steed, Old Whitey, to live and graze on the grounds of the White House. PETA wouldn't have approved of the horse's grabby fans.

The solo leader

He is the only elected president to remain a bachelor.

A different kind of leftist

Legend has it that he was the first southpaw president and could simultaneously write a dead language with one hand and Greek with the other.

The big boss

He was large and in charge, weighing in at more than 300 pounds and earning a reputation as the heaviest president.

President on the mound

He was the first sitting president to attend the World Series and he threw out the first pitch.

A foul feathered friend

This president trained his pet parrot, Poll, to be such a potty-mouth that the bird had to be removed from its master's funeral proceedings

.A hands-on kind of guy

Rumor has it that he liked to have morning scalp massages at breakfast (his salve of choice?).

The middle man

His middle initial doesn't stand for anything at all; it was given to him in honor of his two grandfathers.

A pin-up president

This president was a dashing cover model for a 1942 issue of a long-running women's magazine.

A serious bibliophile

It's been said that he read three to four books a week, thanks to a speed-reading course he took at the White House.