h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh brother...

Some people's biographies I will never find interesting... like, I don't know, Alan Greenspan or Millard Fillmore. Eisenhower isn't boring.

We all enjoy different things. I find Eisenhower a bit bland. I am not trying to denigrate his abilities as a general or the allied commander. I just find him personally less colorful than most presidents. Of course Truman was a hard act to follow. Now, Truman was colorful.

Truman followed around seven Ohio Presidents. Warren Harding was a tough act to follow, color-wise. Did you know that he once bet a part of the White House China collection in a poker game? He lost it. Did you know that Grant couldn't stand the sight of blood?

So, why are you doing Eisenhower? He wasn't from Ohio.

'cos I am
I did most of the dead modern Presidents already. Nixon, LBJ and Kennedy.

I'm sure I'll find a way to make the entry about Ohio anyways...

I'm sure he knew how to spell Ohio. And since he was the allied commander, he had men from Ohio salute him when he walked by. He probably used products manufactured in Ohio. He certainly would have campaigned in Ohio - at least driven through Ohio on his way to Missouri.

When did he go to Missouri?
The index of my book doesn't mention Ohio (or Missouri for that matter) so I'll have to be creative.

Or maybe I could make a big deal about what COULD have been. Would there even have been a World War II if Ike had been born in Ohio? An Ohioan Ike could've just stared down the Axis powers until they got scared and ran away, tail between their legs.

If Ike had been from Ohio, golf would have replaced track and field at the Olympics.

You asked whatr I remembered about Ike? He spent more time on the golf course than he did in the oval office. Of course, no one believed for a moment that he actually ran the country. John Foster Dulles did that for him.

150 days a year at the golf course. He had a putting green put in at the White House, but it was infested with squirrels.

can I just ask a silly question? there you go..ha ha. no, um, where did Woodrow Wilson come from? And did Ike have a puse badge?

infested with squirrels.....that is the understatement of the decade.

Are you doing the Kay Somersby affair? And there was poor little Mamie, with her bangs and her shirtwaist dresses, standing by her man like Tammy Wynette.

Hi Frood. Woodrow Wilson was from Virginia. He is the only president that didn't know when his birthday was. He did have it narrowed down to two dates.

I don't know if he had a puce badge. But he may have had chartreuse boxers.

New Jersey, right? I think Woodrow was from New Jersey. He was President of Princeton college for a while.
Ike had stars, not badges.
They should've done stars. Instead of awarding a 75 entry badge, give three stars.

Did you read my Hamilton entry, H? I used that Tammy Wynette joke about Hamilton's wife Eliza and the Maria Reynolds affair almost exactly.
I haven't gotten to writing about that part yet. The author of this book seems to think it's a big myth, so I'll have to find some other sources for that

Oh, where he was born, Virginia. He was primarily a New Jersey-an though, wasn't he?

It's hard to know what people mean when they say 'what state is a person from?'. If you go by where a person was born, then Benjamin Harrison would've been an Ohio President, but WH Harrison wouldn't have been. If you go by where their home was, Ben Harrison would be an Indiana Prez, and Harrison another Virginian. If you go by where they're buried, Grant would've been a New Yorker.

Governor of New Jersey. He also lived in Georgia. And was the first president to cross the Atlantic. Wilson's father was a Presbyterian minister who grew up in Ohio.

I always knew I liked him.

Wilson's grandfather was an Ohio legislator. He owned a newspaper. Why aren't you doing Wilson?

Wilson was a racist and against women's rights too. I'd have a hard time writing about him.

By the way, did that answer your question, Frood? It's only expected that when you ask Hyp and I a simple question like that, we'll go off on a few tangents.

Women gained the right to vote during Wilson's administration. Wilson is responsible for banking reform, tariff reform, a corrupt practices act, and child labor laws. He is responsible for the Federal Reserve Board. He improved the lot of working men through labor laws. He asked for Congress to establish the Federal Trade Commission. He was a good wartime president as well and excelled in foreign relations. He stopped exploitation of the Panama Canal by American ships and insisted that we live up to our promises to the Phillipines and prepared them for independence. His Fourteen Points plan shortened WWI and gave Kaiser Wilhelm an out, enabling him to surrrender. He won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sorry he doesn't measure up to your standards. Since you wrote about Nixon and LBJ and are now writing about Eisenhower, I hesitate to ask what your standards are.