In terms of Presidential trivia, the one that readily comes to mind is that James Garfield was not only ambidextrous, but could write in Greek with one hand and Latin in the other simultaneously. But that can’t be the only amusing or interesting thing about US Presidents during the late 19th century.
No, I’m afraid you’ve mixed up Booker T. Washington, who had dinner with Teddy Roosevelt in the White House, with George Washington Carver, who was head of Tuskegee Institute. Carver, famous for his research with peanuts, also came up with a hell of a recipe for sweet potato pie.
There’s actually a book called Presidents and Pies. It mostly focuses on the T. Roosevelt and Taft years, and it does have a photo of Taft and guests with some sort of pie.
I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley. I’m sure we’re talking about Booker T. Carver, inventor of the Carver sandwich. He even got to serve one to President Roosevelt.
Surely there haven’t been more than two people named Carver with a gustatory connection to Theodore Roosevelt.
Wait wait wait, I’m confused. WHICH Carver had dinner with Theodore Roosevelt?
Yeah, I already knew Carver had dinner with Roosevelt. What I’m saying is, this wasn’t a regular occurrence.
Actually, both Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt were members of the Sons of the American Revolution. But the George Carver who was a member of the SAR was a Professor of English, and a contemporary of Franklin Roosevelt. He may have known Franklin Roosevelt, for all I know he may have had dinner with FDR. But dammit, he was too young to have dinner with Teddy, and I’m positive he didn’t invent “cheesy wiener pie.”
I’ve been reading lately about George Carver, about whom I knew very little before. One book of dubious accuracy I found at the library said he had dinner with Theodore Roosevelt at the White House when he (Carver, not TR) was 93, and that he asked for a piece of a dish he’d invented, “cheesy wiener pie.” Apparently it was during some sort of official function for the Sons of the American Revolution, of which both were members. Anyone heard of this before?
Well that answers all of my questions about komodo dragons as well as the reverse picket naval strategy. Of course, the reverse picket was as ineffective as I thought it would be but who knew that komodos kept small birds in their gullets? Anyway, anyone read any good books lately?
One more bit of trivia, not sure if it’s true, but allegedly, komodo dragons swallow small birds whole, and the birds actually live in their gullets. Like I said, might not be true, but still interesting.
Western zoologists didn’t take note of the Komodo dragon until 1910 (the Indonesians, obviously, knew about them much earlier :smack: ) so the butchers of Frankfurt couldn’t have ground them into sausage back in the 19th Century. Whatever the original wiener was made from in cheesy wiener pie, it wasn’t dragon meat.
A piece of trivia, one of the fantastic creatures in the original* King Kong* was a Komodo dragon surrounded by tiny props.
My Great Aunt Gertrude just gave me a recipe that she says dates back to the early 1800s, from her family back in Frankfurt, Germany (they were noted butchers in town, apparently). It’s for Komodo dragon sausage, but somehow that doesn’t sound right to me. What do you think?
Any strange old recipes in your family?
Okay, mods, what was wrong with the posts on the reverse picket? Admins, can you keep a leash on the mods?
“Reverse picket”? Wow, the last time I heard that phrase was during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.:eek:
And no, I don’t buy the explanation that it has anything to do with sausage making!
Reverse picket? Is that what you kids are calling it nowadays? All I can say is keep it in your pants you perv!
Reverse Picket! Yes, Reverse Picket! Can’t you [nice people] just answer the question?
Last edited by mod; Today at 9:58; Reason: No touching!
I’m working on a puzzle for my Civil War roundtable. If the guy who led the famous charge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863 had his name shortened by a single “t” and turned his Confederate Army uniform inside-out, what do you think he would be called?
There were actually a whole bunch of German-Americans and German immigrants who fought on both sides of the Civil War. Franz Sigel rose to become a Major General. Unfortunately, he was better at recruiting soldiers than commanding them, and he compiled a less-than-glorious record in battle.
Someone told me yesterday that German-Americans served only in the Confederate Balloon Corps during the Civil War. That can’t be right, is it?