A young Theodore Roosevelt wrote The Naval War of 1812, still recognized as one of the best books on the subject. Among other things, he strongly criticized Thomas Jefferson’s pre-1812 “naval militia” policy as ill-informed and foolish.
The last losing vice presidential candidate to be later elected president was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ran for VP in 1920 and for president in 1932. He is the only one to have achieved this since parties began designating only a single candidate for each post.
In recent years some neurologists who have reviewed his medical records have theorized FDR did not suffer from polio but from Guillain Barre Syndrome, a condition with many of the same symptoms but different causes and thus different treatments. If true, this would explain why FDR benefited far less from the polio treatment center he founded at Warm Springs, GA (which he purchased in his lifetime and bequeathed more than $600,000 in life insurance to when he died) than others did.
When Zell Miller ran for the U.S. Senate from Georgia, his bumper stickers simply read, “Zell Yes!”
Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece Ran, loosely based upon King Lear, was the most expensive Japanese production at the time it was made.
Queen Victoria’s lengthy reign, which kept her son the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) waiting decades for the throne, gave rise to this pun:
Q: How is the Queen like the weather?
A: Because she reigns, and reigns, and reigns… and never gives the poor son a chance!
John Caius (Keyes), the refounder of Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge University, required that the college, known for its premier status in medicine and biology, deny admittance to any applicant who “is deformed, dumb, blind, lame, maimed, mutilated, a Welshman, or suffering from any grave or contagious illness, or an invalid, that is sick in a serious measure”.
Tom and Ray Magliozzi, hosts of NPR’s Car Talk, run the Good News Garage in Cambridge, MA.
Both Tom and Ray Magliozzi graduated from the Massachusettes Institute of Technology in Cambridge. They refer to their home town as “our fair city.”
Ga Tech (of which I am proud alumnus), in Atlanta Ga, often refer to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as the Georgia Tech of the North.
I don’t see how this builds on the previous post.
Massachusetts, Kentucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania are the only four U.S. states which technically refer to themselves as “commonwealths.”
The extreme SW corner of Kentucky is an enclave. It is only accessible via land through Rt 22 through Tennessee. The enclave is bordered on the East, North, and West by the Mississippi river.
My guess is the Prince of Wales/Welshman reference
Right.
The Dutch municipality of Baarle-Nassau has seven exclaves within two exclaves of the Belgian municipality of Baarle-Hertog.
Thanks for the clarification re: the Prince of Wales.
Nassau Hall is the oldest building still in use on the Princeton University campus. According to legend, an American artillery shot during the 1777 Battle of Princeton beheaded its lifesize portrait of King George III, dispiriting the British infantry who had taken cover inside the hall.
At the height of its popularity, Dave Mason’s song “Feelin’ Alright” had a new cover version recorded every three weeks.
Despite his popularity in office, President Bill Clinton won only by a plurality of votes, not a majority, in both 1992 or 1996.
Plurality is one of the Twelve Pure Concepts of the Understanding defined by Immanuel Kant in his Critique of Pure Reason. It is one of the Three Categories of Quantity, the others being Unity and Totality. The other three types of categories are Quality (including Reality, Negation, and Limitation), Relation (including Inherence and Subsistence, Causality and Dependence, and Community), and Modality (including Possibility—Impossibility, Existence—Non-existence, and Necessity—Contingency).
At MIT, we commonly referred to the place as MIT. 
Tori Amos’ first album was titled Y Kant Tori Read. It’s a reference to the fact that Amos plays by ear and cannot read musical notation.
Tori Amos and Neil Gaiman are close friends. Tori namedrops Neil in her songs, while Neil put her in *Sandman *in various forms - as the face on a tree in the Suicide circle of Hell for instance. He has also said that some of the weird, disjointed things Delirium says are more or less straight from Tori’s mouth.
In Sandman Delirium used to be known as Delight, “but I changed”. Her six siblings are Destiny, Death, Dream, Despair, Destruction and Desire.