James K. Polk is the only President who was also Speaker of the House.
On “Married With Children”, Al Bundy frequently referred to having played football at Polk High School.
Al’s wife Peggy was born Margaret Jo Wanker in Wanker County, Wisconsin.
In Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! comic books, one minor mystery is what happened to Peggy Krieger, wife of Rueben Flagg’s boss and mistress of Mayor C. Kenan Blitz. Two of Flagg’s love interests – Amanda Krieger and Medea Blitz – are Peggy’s daughters, though she is missing until the final issue of the first year reveals where she had been (in plain sight since issue #1, if you knew the right clues).
Tabitha King is as fine a writer in her own right as her more famous husband Stephen. Her most famous works are her trilogy of Pearl, One on One, and The Book of Rueben.
Stephen Douglas, “The Little Giant,” whom Abraham Lincoln defeated in the Presidential election of 1860, supported Lincoln and encouraged Union recruiting once the Civil War broke out in April 1861. He died of illness later that year.
Lincoln won the Presidential election of 1860 with the smallest popular vote percentage ever, 39.8%.
Woodrow Wilson’s percentage of 41.8% in 1912 was the second smallest.
Woodrow Wilson’s relationship with Edith Bolling Galt was a source of major gossip in D.C… When their engagement was announced a very popular joke across the nation ended with “she was so shocked she fell out of bed”.
Because he was the first novelist to deal with issues of the industrial revolution, the Scotsman John Galt has been called the first political novelist in the English language
One of those who told the joke at a party was the newly-appointed English (that is, British) ambassador to the U.S. When the jest got back to the President, he refused to permit the diplomat to come to the White House to present his credentials, so the man was recalled to London and a new ambassador was sent.
Washington socialite Alice Roosevelt Longworth (daughter of Teddy) was a notorious jokester in her circle, known for such pranks as putting a tack on the seat of distinguished lawmaker and jumping into a swimming pool fully clothed. She kept an embroidered pillow with the phrase “If you haven’t got anything good to say about anybody, come sit next to me.”
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Ayn Rand began writing Atlas Shrugged (which centers around productive ‘drop outs’ led by John Galt) during and in large part in response to Franklin Roosevelt’s first term.
On July 31, 1968, the Peanuts comic strip became integrated with the introduction of the character of Franklin.
Franklin, whose only role in the strip was to be black, was satirized in “South Park” by the introduction of the character Token Black.
New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) stopped taking tokens in 2003 – first on subways in May, and then for buses on New Year’s Eve.
Charlie never returned from his trip on the MTA, and his fate is still unlearned. Sources say he may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston.
The MTA song has become so entrenched in Boston lore that the city’s subway system named its electronic card-based fare collection system the “CharlieCard” as a tribute.
The Kingston Trio and then-Governor Mitt Romney performed the song in 2004 at the time of the rollout of the MBTA’s CharlieCard.
Drew Barrymore owns the screen rights to the Charlie’s Angels TV series.
Drew Carrey, host of The Price is Right and Whose Line Is It Anyway?, was born in Cleveland, Ohio.