News and Notes
Commentary From the Editors
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wait, John Tyler's Grandson Is Still Alive?
Yes, it's true.Harrison Tyler, age 81, is alive and well and living in the family homestead in Virginia.
Let's back up. John Tyler was president from 1841-45. How can a guy who became president 168 years ago have a living grandson?
It helps if he's a distinguished horndog who keeps fathering children until he's 70 years old. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, his 13th child, was born in 1853, when John Tyler was 63.
Going his father one better, Lyon Tyler lived to be 81 and fathered a son at age 75, in 1928. That son was Harrison Tyler -- born 66 years after the death of his grandfather and still living today.
John Tyler was the 10th president, and Barack Obama is the 44th, so 34 presidencies have passed between John Tyler and his grandson. For that matter, President Tyler was born in 1790, when George Washington was president... so the three Tyler generations span every single president of the United States.
Harrison Tyler went to the College of William & Mary (like his grandpa) and became a chemical engineer. He still lives in Sherwood Forest Plantation and seems like a good egg. Keeping up the Tyler political tradition, he even donated $1250 to the Virginia Republican Party in 2008.
And he's got a sense of humor about the family fecundity. Here he is encountering some college kids pitching woo near busts of his ancestors at William & Mary:
Shortly after the dedication of the sculptures, Tyler was returning from an alumni event at the University Center and visited the garden, which was occupied by two young couples enjoying the evening.
"I said, 'That's my father, that's my grandfather, and that's my great-grandfather,'" he says. "And they could not be any happier about what you all are using this for.'"
Labels: Harrison Tyler, John Tyler, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, William Henry Harrison
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 5:54 AM0 comments 
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Phony Presidential Trivia
Here's a swell new Onion interview with writer John Hodgman.He's the dowdy "PC" on Apple TV ads, and a regular on Jon Stewart's show. He's also the author of the fake-trivia books The Areas of My Expertise and More Information Than You Require.
Who2 has a love/hate relationship with Hodgman. Five years ago we wrote a fake trivia book of our own -- Utterly False Trivia -- and couldn't get it published. We're glad Hodgman got his out there, but full of envy and irritation that we couldn't get it done ourselves.
That's not Hodgman's fault, of course. The shame is ours.
However: In honor of the presidential elections of 2008, here are a few choice items from the "Hail to the Chief" section of our unpublished UFT.
* * *
Baseball star Babe Ruth portrayed President William Howard Taft in Big Bill, the only film in the Bambino's brief post-baseball acting career. Ruth played both the president and himself in a scene where Taft throws out the first ball to Ruth at the 1912 World Series. It was the first use of split screen in Hollywood history.
* * *
President Ronald Reagan's Four Famous Commands to Mikhail Gorbachev:
1. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
2. "Mr. Gorbachev, put down that maid!"
3. "Mr. Gorbachev, turn down that thermostat!"
4. "Mr. Gorbachev, make me a ham sandwich!"
* * *
The Barkley Presidential Length Index (BPLI) uses a formula of height multiplied by length of term to measure the inch-hours served by each chief executive.
William Henry Harrison, at 5'10" but only 33 days in office, has the lowest BPLI. Abraham Lincoln, had he lived, would have had the hightest BPLI of any two-term president. The all-time highest BPLI belongs to four-term president Franklin Roosevelt, if measured while standing instead of in his wheelchair. However, had Lyndon Johnson (6'4") run again for reelection in 1968 and completed 9+ years in office, he could have become the new BPLI leader.
* * *
In his 2004 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush repeatedly referred to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein -- who had been dubbed "the Butcher of Baghdad" -- as "the Barber of Seville."
* * *
In an attempt to raise spirits during the Great Depression, President Herbert Hoover had "Hail to the Chief" replaced with "The Charleston" whenever he appeared in public. The original song was quietly reinstated by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.
Labels: Abraham Lincoln, Babe Ruth, Franklin Roosevelt, George W. Bush, Herbert Hoover, John Hodgman, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, William Henry Harrison, William Howard Taft
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 7:58 AM0 comments
