Is anyone else vaguely creeped out by this? (President's Day trivia)

Jefferson and Adams dying on the same day is fairly famous.

Supposedly Adams said something like: "At least Jefferson still lives" on his deathbed.

For others of this type, there's that famous list of similarities between Kennedy and Lincoln (it's not really as odd as it makes it seem, but it's fun to read if you've never seen it).

Alleycat...I thought of that Lincoln Kennedy thing as soon as I read this post.

But then I looked it up on Snopes.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/lincoln-kennedy.asp

and that was a bummer.

Kateness said:

Alleycat...I thought of that Lincoln Kennedy thing as soon as I read this post.

But then I looked it up on Snopes.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/lincoln-kennedy.asp

and that was a bummer.

Click to expand...

Well, the real answer is if you look at all the dates and details about two people's lives (there might be several thousand), you are bound to find a handful that are the same.

Take you and me:

You are mean.
I am mean.

You're a member of AW.
I'm a member of AW.

You have dark hair.
I have dark hair.

You're cute.
I'm . . . okay, never mind.

Kateness said:

Alleycat...I thought of that Lincoln Kennedy thing as soon as I read this post.

But then I looked it up on Snopes.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/lincoln-kennedy.asp

and that was a bummer.

Click to expand...

Ha!!!

Kateness said:

Alleycat...I thought of that Lincoln Kennedy thing as soon as I read this post.

But then I looked it up on Snopes.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/lincoln-kennedy.asp

and that was a bummer.

Click to expand...

aww....Snopes ruins all our fun!But it is great for those annoying emails people forward around.

Then there was President Ford who said "I'm a Ford, but I'm not a Lincoln..." Spooky!

Okay, maybe not...

President's Day Prayer

Great Leader, who art in Washington,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy empire come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in the Oval Office.

Click to expand...

Fair use compels me to send you to the link above for the rest.

John Quincy Adams returned to sit in congress after being president. At that time he was the only living member of congress to have witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill. His is the first known photograph of a living president.

Taft was the only person to serve in congress, the white house, and the supreme court.

Taft was so fat (How fat was he? LOL) that he got stuck in the White House bathtub and had to be lifted out. An oversized tub was later installed to accommodate his bulk.

I also once read that President Garfield could write in Greek in one hand, and in Latin with the other, simultaneously. He was considered to be one of the most intellectually gifted Presidents.

No wonder they shot him.

Garfield was a great loss to our nation. By all accounts he was a highly gifted man, and given the succession that followed Lincoln's assassination, the nation was in dire need of such a person. He was shot less than a year into his term by a deluded numbskull who had the idea that he had been cheated out of an appointive position by Garfield.

Garfield's successor was Chester Arthur, a machine politico from New York City who had a history of scandal behind him, yet one more testimony to the dumbass system we have for essentially appointing vice-presidents. The good news is that Arthur actually turned out to be a better President than anyone expected, with some significant accomplishments in finishing out that single term. In that history, he resembles Harry Truman.

But the next really talented and good President the U.S. had didn't come along for another two decades: Teddy Roosevelt, who ironically also succeeded to the Presidency via assassination.

Kateness said:

Alleycat...I thought of that Lincoln Kennedy thing as soon as I read this post.

But then I looked it up on Snopes.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/lincoln-kennedy.asp

and that was a bummer.

Click to expand...

I think that Snopes piece is trying waaaay to hard to "disprove" the coincidences/similarities. Look at the one about both being succeeded by veeps named Johnson. The "explanation" is stupid, imo. It IS a weird coincidence. The piece makes it sound like everyone and their brother was named Johnson. Yet, we've had exactly two--these two--Presidents named Johnson and both took office after an assassination. Come on. That's just weird.

Means nothing else of course. But supposing that this is somehow not unusual--as the Snopes piece tries to do--is just silly, imo.

robeiae said:

I think that Snopes piece is trying waaaay to hard to "disprove" the coincidences/similarities. Look at the one about both being succeeded by veeps named Johnson. The "explanation" is stupid, imo. It IS a weird coincidence. The piece makes it sound like everyone and their brother was named Johnson. Yet, we've had exactly two--these two--Presidents named Johnson and both took office after an assassination. Come on. That's just weird.

Click to expand...

Well, Johnson is the second-most common surname in the U.S., exceeded only by Smith. The two Johnsons are also the only two Presidents sharing a surname who weren't related.

So you think somehow a cosmic force or something was involved?

blacbird said:

So you think somehow a cosmic force or something was involved?

Click to expand...

It was manifest destiny.

Five of the last seven Presidents of the United States have been left-handed.

Proof of ancient astronauts, for sure.

blacbird said:

Well, Johnson is the second-most common surname in the U.S., exceeded only by Smith. The two Johnsons are also the only two Presidents sharing a surname who weren't related.

So you think somehow a cosmic force or something was involved?

Click to expand...

No, I think it's a weird little coincidence.

As do I. As does Snopes.

blacbird said:

As do I. As does Snopes.

Click to expand...

Snopes--well, the person that wrote that piece, anyway--seemed to think an extended explanation was needed for that, as if it was an expected thing somehow, that it wasn't even a "coincidence." Read it again.

That strikes me--again--as trying to hard. That's all.

And again, it means nothing, it's proof of nothing. Just trivia. But I do realize the danger of trivia, so I understand why you're so upset...

Given their take on Lincoln (and Kennedy) in that piece, I'm surprised anybody's giving Snopes the time of day.

Snopes had a secretary named Wikipedia, you know...

Er...George W Bush is related to Hugh Hefner...and President Obama.