Monday, February 18, 2019

Stolen Glory, Presidents' Day Style

Presidents' Day is a strange holiday, though it's originally a portmanteau of Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays, it's now usually seen as a catchall for all of our Chief Executives. Among this rarefied group are generally good, competent men, such as Lincoln, Eisenhower, the Roosevelts, the Adams family (but not the Addams Family), and Obama, generally good but ineffectual men such as Carter and Hayes, bad but effective men such as Andrew Jackson, bad and ineffective men, such as Warren G. Harding, Reagan, the Bushes, and our current Dotard, and a whole slew of men who blend good and bad features... flawed heroes such as Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe- men whose cognitive dissonance allowed them to 'champion' freedom while owning slaves. All are lumped together on this holiday, the greats and those whose names are generally useful to know on Trivia Night (for the record, one of the guys on my team has all of the presidents memorized while I am the world geography and science guy).

Then there's this guy:





I don't know why John and John decided to lionize this particular president, but the song must have been a boo to thousands of students since its release.

2 comments:

Harry Hamid said...

They Might be Giants are sort of the kings of the random.

I only honor Grover Cleveland, since he's the only one who counts twice when you try and get to forty-five.

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Truly, an unsung hero, HH.