peeping tom

towards the light

hey kids--it's spiro agnew!

theodore roosevelt

Some facts about the 26th President:

----Vice-President Roosevelt became President after William McKinley was assassinated. He was sworn in at the age of 42, the youngest of any U.S. President so far.

--Roosevelt attempted to move the Republican Party in the direction of Progressivism, including trust busting and increased regulation of businesses. As an outdoorsman and naturalist, he promoted the conservation movement. On the world stage, Roosevelt's policies were characterized by his slogan, "Speak softly and carry a big stick". Roosevelt was the force behind the completion of the Panama Canal; he sent out the Great White Fleet to display American power, and he negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Roosevelt was the first American to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

--Roosevelt declined to run for a second term, but grew so upset at his annointed successor, William Taft, that he formed his own political party, the Bull Moose (or Progressive) Party, to use to run against Taft in the 1912 election. Roosevelt became the only third party candidate to take 2nd place in a Presidential election, beating Taft but not Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson.

--While Roosevelt was campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 14, 1912, a saloonkeeper named John Schrank shot him, but the bullet lodged in his chest only after penetrating both his steel eyeglass case and passing through a thick (50 pages) single-folded copy of the speech he was carrying in his jacket.

Roosevelt, as an experienced hunter and anatomist, correctly concluded that since he wasn't coughing blood, the bullet had not completely penetrated the chest wall to his lung, and so declined suggestions he go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech with blood seeping into his shirt. He spoke for 90 minutes. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."

Afterwards, probes and x-ray showed that the bullet had traversed three inches of tissue and lodged in Roosevelt's chest muscle, and it would be more dangerous to attempt to remove the bullet than to leave it in place. Roosevelt carried it with him for the rest of his life.

--To date, Roosevelt remains the only U.S. President that actor Tom Berenger has portrayed in his storied film and television career.

lord of the flies

al williamson: 1931--2010

An overview of his life via wikipedia

EDIT: And a better overview by Tom Spurgeon.

jimmy carter

Did You Know?

--Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. President to be born in a hospital. He was also the first U.S. President to be interviewed by Playboy magazine. Coincidence?

--He has written twenty-one books, which I believe makes him the most prolific author of all U.S. Presidents.

--Was one of only four Presidents who never had the chance to appoint a nominee for the Supreme Court (this could have been avoided if he had simply had Justice Potter Stewart poisoned, to use one example).

--His father, James Earl Carter, engineered a special salve made from an exotic peanut blend and coated young Jimmy's chest with it every night before bedtime. This led to the development of various unexpected super-powers (super-strength, hyper-reflexes, infra-vision, and mind blasts).