Oval Office Oddities

Author: Bill Fawcett
Publisher: WordFire +ORM
ISBN: 1680571184
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 390

Book Description
“This amusing collection of factoids entertains, but it's also an accessible look at the 43 men who have held our nation's highest office. Enjoyable.” —School Library Journal Every four years Americans go to the polls to elect a leader—a personage of unimpeachable sobriety and moral standing who will serve as a paragon for the rest of us. But truth be told, presidents and their families are people too—with quirks and character flaws like everyone else . . . and plenty of skeletons rattling around in their closets. Oval Office Oddities is a grand compendium of fascinating, sometimes embarrassing presidential facts, gaffes, and oddball behaviors—available in plenty of time for Election Day! White House Whoopee: We've all heard about the dalliances of Clinton and Kennedy—but what were Washington, Jefferson, FDR, and Ike doing behind closed doors? America’s Imelda: Mary Todd Lincoln had an endearing little clothing fetish . . . and once purchased 300 pairs of gloves in a single month! Go West, Young Prez: “California Dreamin’” was not a top presidential priority . . . since no Commander in Chief bothered to visit the neglected coast until Rutherford B. Hayes did in 1880. Crazy Jack: Many prominent leaders were absolutely convinced that John Adams was stark raving bonkers!

Oval Office Occult

Author: Brian M. Thomsen
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ISBN: 0740790528
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Book Description
An entertaining and informative look at our paranormal presidencies." --Bill Fawcett, author of Oval Office Oddities The Discovery Channel's A Haunting meets the History Channel's The Presidents inside this collection of strange-but-true tales of White House weirdness. Brian M. Thomsen offers a series of nonpartisan accounts of spirits, specters, and supernatural beliefs by and about those who have inhabited the White House. Readers will learn which U.S. presidents have claimed to encounter UFOs, and which have been connected to ghosts, as well as which of our nation's leaders have consulted with fortune-tellers or otherwise been associated with other aspects of the occult. Famous subjects include Warren G. Harding and the curse of the Hope Diamond, the uncanny similarities between the lives and deaths of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, George Washington's visions, Ronald and Nancy Reagan's reliance on psychics, the haunted homes of Dolly Madison and Rosalyn Carter, Jimmy Carter's UFO sighting, Hillary Clinton's experience with channeling, the mysterious curse of Tecumseh, the secret societies of presidents, and much more.

Space Oddities

Author: S. D. Tucker
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445662639
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 485

Book Description
Flat worlds, moon men, Martian canals and other strange ideas from beyond the stars

The Little Giant Book of American Presidents

Author: Glen Vecchione
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781402726927
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Book Description
A collection of little-known facts about the U.S. presidents that provides a glimpse into their personalities, covering such topics as nicknames, families, finances, food and drink, homes, sports, hobbies, and oddities, as well as their lives after the presidency.

Presidents' Most Wanted™

Author: Nick Ragone
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1597973408
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Book Description
The presidency is a special office. Along with the vice president, the victorious candidate is our only nationally elected official, and the position has come to symbolize American government worldwide. In many ways, the office is greater than the people who have occupied it. In the 200-plus years of our nation’s history, the presidency has grown and evolved dramatically. With the exception of Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson, the nineteenth-century office holders exerted little executive power and mostly deferred to Congress on domestic affairs. Teddy Roosevelt began to change all that, and FDR completed the transformation with his New Deal, laying the foundations for the modern presidency. With the onset of the Cold War, the “imperial” presidency was in full bloom, and after a brief lull, the government’s response to the war on terror has given the office new and unprecedented powers. Undoubtedly now the presidency is not only the most powerful and important job in the United States, but arguably in the world. Presidents’ Most Wanted™ celebrates the office, the people who inhabited it, and the process of winning it, with thirty-five chapters packed full of all sorts of presidential trivia. It covers everything from elections to first ladies to blunders and triumphs, and gives the reader an in-depth look at the most powerful person in the world.

Kansas Curiosities

Author: Pam Grout
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0762765798
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
Your round-trip ticket to the wildest, wackiest, most outrageous people, places, and things the Sunflower State has to offer! Whether you’re a born-and-raised Kansan, a recent transplant, or just passing through, Kansas Curiosities will have you laughing out loud as Pam Grout takes you on a rollicking tour of the strangest sides of the Sunflower State. Visit the Museum of the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things—and get your own largest ball starter kit. Meet more chainsaw-wielding, glow-in-the-dark-scrap-metal-zoo-building, grapefruit-peel-sculpting, papier-mâché-mixing, porcelain-pig-painting grassroots artists than you can shake a stick at! Get a load of Big Brutus, a sixteen-story coal shovel that has become a popular tourist attraction; and discover the thrill of an indoor hurricane—it’ll blow you away.

Dead Presidents: An American Adventure into the Strange Deaths and Surprising Afterlives of Our Nation’s Leaders

Author: Brady Carlson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039324394X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Book Description
"Entertaining…Carlson shifts deftly among sombre, macabre, and playful stories and shows how the death-tourism industry reveals more than amusing trivia." —The New Yorker In Dead Presidents, public radio host and reporter Brady Carlson takes readers on an epic trip to presidential gravesites, monuments, and memorials from sea to shining sea. With an engaging mix of history and contemporary reporting, Carlson explores the death stories of our greatest leaders, and shows that the ways we memorialize our presidents reveal as much about us as they do about the men themselves.

The 5 W's

Author: Erin McHugh
Publisher: Union Square + ORM
ISBN: 1402797656
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 881

Book Description
This massive trivia tome features all five entries in the 5 W’s series, each brimming with unusual facts that amuse as they expand your mind. Five classic questions . . . five classic collections . . . Who? – From the genealogy of the Bach family to a complete listing of team mascots, here are some of the most surprising and quirky facts about people ever. Find out who topped the music charts most, which U.S. president liked to swim nude, and who the world’s greatest philosophers are. What? – Musical instruments in an orchestra, Pulitzer Prize categories, and events in an Olympic decathlon: this is an entertaining and enlightening diverse anthology of facts. From the longest word currently listed in any Oxford dictionary to inventions, fashions, and ketchup ice cream, all the sundries of life appear on these vivid pages. Where? – From Arsenic Tubs, Mexico to Big Ugly, West Virginia, here’s where you’ll find plenty of fun facts. Discover the ins and outs of places almost unknown, locales that have captured your imagination, and spots worth finding out about—including the world’s best and most beautiful beaches. When? – When . . . Did a bank put out first ATM? Were the three major attacks of the Bubonic Plague? Were the amendments of the Bill of Rights enacted? Travel through different eras for a glimpse of what each period has brought us and get a fun and all-inclusive overview of landmark events that’s irresistibly intriguing. Why? – Why do mosquitos love to bite us so much? Why does baseball have a seven-inning stretch? And why do some countries drive on the left of the road? Get the details and data needed to answer an incredible range of questions, from everyday queries to philosophical conundrums.

The 5 W's: Who?

Author: Erin McHugh
Publisher: Union Square + ORM
ISBN: 1402792123
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 154

Book Description
A collection of quirky and unusual facts about a variety of people, including Playboy cover models, humanity’s ancestors, and Catholic patron saints. From the genealogy of the Bach family to a complete listing of team mascots, here are some of the most surprising and quirky facts about people ever. Find out who topped the music charts most, which U.S. president liked to swim nude, and who the world’s greatest philosophers are. Who is . . . . . . Mother Shipton? A fifteenth-century witch who predicted the Great Fire of London and her own death. . . . Thomas Jennings? Abolitionist, inventor, and the first black man to hold a U.S. patent. . . . Jack C. Massey? One of only three people who knew Colonel Sanders’s secret recipe. . . . Saint Joseph of Cupertino? The patron saint of astronauts. . . . On a Friday? The band we know as Radiohead.

Oval Office Oddities

Author: Bill Fawcett
Publisher: Wordfire Press
ISBN: 9781680571172
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382

Book Description
Every four years Americans go to the polls to elect a leader, someone serious, distinguished, respectable, with perfect sobriety and moral standing who will serve as a paragon for the rest of us. But presidents and their families are people too-with quirks and character flaws like everyone else . . . and they have plenty of skeletons rattling around in their closets. Oval Office Oddities is a grand compendium of fascinating, sometimes embarrassing presidential facts, gaffes, and oddball behaviors-available in plenty of time for Election Day! Mary Todd Lincoln had an endearing little clothing fetish . . . and once purchased 300 pairs of gloves in a single month! No Commander in Chief bothered to visit neglected California until Rutherford B. Hayes did in 1880. Crazy Jack: Many prominent leaders were absolutely convinced that John Adams was stark raving bonkers! Oval Office Oddities is jam-packed with amusing anecdotes and offbeat information presented in a way that makes our nation's history accessible, relevant, and entertaining.