# Patriotism that's a little scary, and a lot kitschy **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 14, 2006, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patriotism-thats-a-little-scary-and-a-lot-kitschy/368602 "2006-08-14T00:11:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![scotandrsn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@scotandrsn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scotandrsn)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patriotism-thats-a-little-scary-and-a-lot-kitschy/368602/21 "2006-08-14T15:57:36Z")
And [the artist](http://www.presidentspark.org/artist_educational_contributors.html) looks like James Carville’s evil twin. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patriotism-thats-a-little-scary-and-a-lot-kitschy/368602/22 "2006-08-14T17:12:55Z")
Boulter’s Canary writes: \> I just don’t think it would occur to anybody in the UK to open a political theme \> park. I could be wrong, of course - somebody could be planning Thatcherworld \> right now. This park appears to be a small addendum to Colonial Williamsburg, a reconstruction of the buildings in Williamsburg, Virginia to the state that they were in 1750 or so. The idea for this (and a few other similar places elsewhere in the U.S.) is to show tourists what that particular place looked like at some earlier point in U.S. history. Perhaps they aren’t actually very authentic. People complained that they didn’t bother to reconstruct the slave quarters for the houses in Colonial Williamsburg. There’s something very similar in the U.K. - the stately homes. These are the mansions and castles belonging to aristocracy that they maintain partly as residences and partly as tourist traps. If they didn’t let the tourists visit, they wouldn’t have enough money to keep up the house and grounds and would probably have to sell the house to pay the taxes on it. Colonial Williamsburg and a few other similar places in the U.S. are, like the stately homes, tourist traps that claim to be historical theme parks. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patriotism-thats-a-little-scary-and-a-lot-kitschy/368602/23 "2006-08-14T23:03:30Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] Boulter’s Canary writes: \> I just don’t think it would occur to anybody in the UK to open a political theme \> park. I could be wrong, of course - somebody could be planning Thatcherworld \> right now. This park appears to be a small addendum to Colonial Williamsburg, a reconstruction of the buildings in Williamsburg, Virginia to the state that they were in 1750 or so. The idea for this (and a few other similar places elsewhere in the U.S.) is to show tourists what that particular place looked like at some earlier point in U.S. history. Perhaps they aren’t actually very authentic. People complained that they didn’t bother to reconstruct the slave quarters for the houses in Colonial Williamsburg. There’s something very similar in the U.K. - the stately homes. These are the mansions and castles belonging to aristocracy that they maintain partly as residences and partly as tourist traps. If they didn’t let the tourists visit, they wouldn’t have enough money to keep up the house and grounds and would probably have to sell the house to pay the taxes on it. Colonial Williamsburg and a few other similar places in the U.S. are, like the stately homes, tourist traps that claim to be historical theme parks. [/QUOTE] Right, gotcha - it’s like the menagerie in the grounds of Longleat House (for example). Those who want (for want of a better word) ‘seriousness’ do the house tour. Those who don’t like that sort of thing head for the lions. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patriotism-thats-a-little-scary-and-a-lot-kitschy/368602/24 "2006-08-15T02:22:07Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] …All it says of Taft is about his size and his bathtub – nothing about him being the only President to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court… [/QUOTE] A nitpick: Chief Justice of the United States (28 U.S.C. Sec. 1). ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patriotism-thats-a-little-scary-and-a-lot-kitschy/368602/25 "2006-08-15T03:12:01Z")
**JustAnotherGeek** I guess you are talking about this page? [http://www.presidentspark.org/1865\_1897.html](http://www.presidentspark.org/1865_1897.html) Among other things, it goes from Chester Alan Arthur 21st President (1881-1885) To: Stephen Grover Cleveland 14th President (1853-1857) AND in a related story, their website states … \*The Park features 16-18 foot busts of all 43 Presidents of the United States \* ALL 43 Presidents? I hope for their sake they have _two_ of Grover Cleveland or else that’s false advertising. ---
**Author:** ![JustAnotherGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/58f4c7/32.png) [@JustAnotherGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustAnotherGeek)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2006, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patriotism-thats-a-little-scary-and-a-lot-kitschy/368602/26 "2006-08-15T03:24:16Z")
[QUOTE=wolf\_meister] **JustAnotherGeek** I guess you are talking about this page? [http://www.presidentspark.org/1865\_1897.html](http://www.presidentspark.org/1865_1897.html) [/QUOTE] That’s the one. I emailed the folks there. Once someone knew what I was talking about; he said he’d get on it. He mentioned something like; Funny, no one noticed that for two years… :dubious: also, my first message was something quite short like: the presidents are out of order on page 1865-1897. He had to ask for clarification. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/patriotism-thats-a-little-scary-and-a-lot-kitschy/368602.md?page=1)