HAIL TO THE CHIEF !!

In honor of our national holiday that celebrates all that is Presidential.... here are some weird and somewhat unusual facts about our former Presidents. Hooray for those friends of mine out there that get EVERY STINKING FEDERAL HOLIDAY ....and I cannot prove it yet but I think he also takes off for national holidays in Canada .

1. George Washington had at least four sets of false teeth, which he soaked in port; after being elected President, he had a new pair created from hippopotamus tusk. He also had a fear of premature burial and owned six white horses whose teeth were brushed every morning. He also loved to tell dirty jokes and obscene stories (in the 1920s, J.P. Morgan burned several Washington letters because they were too "smutty").

2. Calvin Coolidge once fell asleep at his desk in the middle of the day. When he awoke, he asked "Is the country still here?". He was also known to have his head rubbed with vaseline while eating breakfast in bed.

3. Franklin Pierce was arrested during his term as President for running over an old lady with his horse, but the charges were later dropped

4. Franklin Roosevelt was so superstitious, that he wouldn't leave town on a Friday and never sat at a table with 13 people.

5. Zachary Taylor refused to violate the Sabbath by taking the oath of office, so under the Succession Act of 1792, Missouri Senator David Atchinson (President Pro Tempore of the Senate) became president of the United States for a day. He appointed his friends to Cabinet positions, had a few drinks, then went to bed.

6. Howard Taft had a pet Holstein named Pauline in a pasture next to the Executive Mansion.

7. Thomas Jefferson is often credited with inventing the coat hanger, the hideaway bed, the calendar clock and the dumbwaiter. However, he wrote his own epitaph without mentioning the fact that he served as President of the United States for two terms.

8. Martin Van Buren refused to mention his wife's name in his autobiography-- on the grounds that a gentleman would not "bandy a lady's name in public."

9. Chester A. Arthur ("Elegant Arthur") owned eighty pairs of trousers and changed clothes several times a day.

10. Ronald Reagan consulted astrologers before making important decisions, including when to invade Grenada and bomb Libya

11. Eight Presidents were born British subjects: Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J. Q. Adams, Jackson, and W. Harrison.

12. George Washington was the only president who did not represent a political party.

And because I am an FDR geek ....here are a few more facts just about him.

--Model shipbuilding and stamp collecting were FDR's favorite hobbies. At his death, the sale of his personal stamp collection brought in more than $200,000.

--The Roosevelts hosted the 1st visit of a reigning British monarch to the U.S. George VI and his wife Elizabeth spent a day and a night at the White House, and were introduced to that great American food, hot dogs, for the 1st time.

--There was an assassination attempt on Roosevelt in February, 1933, while touring Miami Florida. Roosevelt was unharmed, but Anton Cermak, mayor of Chicago, was killed. Presidents were still sworn in in March so FDR was still the President Elect.

--He was the first president to have a presidential aircraft.