# False Presidential Trivia **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 4, 1999, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732 "1999-09-04T11:25:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 1999, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/21 "1999-09-07T15:14:00Z")
Clinton never said this about Nixon: “Yes, the president should resign. He has lied to the American people”. Finally, a bit of irony about the kid who corrected Dan Quayle’s spelling. He is now a high school drop-out. * * * “It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in an argument” - William McAdoo ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 1999, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/22 "1999-09-08T13:14:00Z")
The village of Moravia, New York, adjacent to Fillmore Glen State Park (which includes Millard Fillmore’s birthplace as well as a nice little scenic gorge) annually has a Millard Fillmore days that includes a bathtub race. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 1999, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/23 "1999-09-09T02:18:00Z")
Paul Harvey says that Lincoln had cancer, and that if he hadn’t been shot, he would have lived about six more months. But Paul Harvey’s been wrong about **many** things. * * * Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together. —Red Green ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/24 "1999-09-13T04:32:00Z")
Funny how things come around. I just recently saw several of those Dan Quayle “quotes” on a website that attributed them to Al Gore. ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/25 "1999-09-13T06:54:00Z")
Supposedly, Paul Harvey said that Lincoln might have had cancer. Are you sure he didn’t say **Marfan’s syndrome**? There has been plenty of specultaion that Mr. Lincoln suffered from this affliction. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/26 "1999-09-13T14:57:00Z")
The current good economy is a result of Clinton’s policies. It’s Alan Greenspan who’s doing a bang-up job! ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/27 "1999-09-13T15:26:00Z")
Here’s some more real trivia about the portly President Taft: Yale University’s Woolsey Hall auditorium, built during the Taft presidency, includes one double-wide seat meant especially for the then Commander-in-Chief. Oh, and anytime you’re in the mood to mock the steely young men and women of New Haven, spring this one: Harvard provided the country with the Adamses, the Roosevelts, and Kennedy. Princeton educated Madison and Wilson. Yale gave us Taft and Bush. * * * Uke ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/28 "1999-09-13T19:21:00Z")
Taft didn’t want to be President anyway. (The weather on the March 4 when he was inaugurated was so bad he moaned, “Even the elements do protest.”) The only decent thing Harding did–other than pardoning Eugene Debs–was to appoint Taft as the 10th Chief Justice. Taft was happier in that post than as President. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/29 "1999-09-13T19:46:00Z")
Teddy Roosevelt did not ride up (or down) San Juan Hill with his Rough Riders. Can’t remember what the hill WAS called, but it wasn’t San Juan (just saw this on a documentary about the Spanish American War a week ago). And yes, Geo. Washington’s teeth were ivory, not wood. I’ve always mistrusted that story about Lincoln dreaming of his own coffin in the White House a week before his death–who was the source of that story, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/30 "1999-09-13T19:54:00Z")
Teddy Roosevelt could have ridden up San Juan or any other hill. His horse “Texas” went with him; so did other officers’ horses. The grunts’ horses couldn’t come along; not enough room in the boat. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/31 "1999-09-13T21:20:00Z")
On an Urban Legends website–I think it’s [www.snopes.com–there’s](http://www.snopes.com--there's) a subtopic about all the alleged similarities between Lincoln and Kennedy. One thing debunked is that Lincoln’s secretary named Kennedy told him not to go to Ford’s Theater–Lincoln didn’t _have_ a secretary named Kennedy! ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/32 "1999-09-13T21:21:00Z")
[Correction--www.snopes.com](http://Correction--www.snopes.com) * * * “If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully–because I walk in my sleep.”–Victor Borge ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 1999, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732/33 "1999-09-14T16:58:00Z")
Forgive my abbreviated version of this story- I heard it about a year ago on NPR- the person telling the story was a Ronald Regan biographer- Reagan was apparently speaking to a group of war veterans about how important their role in history was. He got going about a pilot her knew in a war- apparently the plane was going down- the rest of the people on board were parachuting out, but he and a sick boy they had saved remained in the plane. He crawled to the back of the plane with the boy and held his hand while the plane went down- (along with some brave quote I can’t recall) (that’s the gist of the story anyway.) Not a dry eye in the crowd, I guess- turns out it wasn’t true- it was from a movie. But the biographer said that he had told the story so many times that he really belived it was absolutely true. I guess the biographer didn’t want to put it in the book, knowing it wasn’t true… * * * It was dark all around. There was frost in the ground When the tigers broke free- [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/false-presidential-trivia/7732.md?page=1)