B y R I C H A R D L E D E R E R
Words About what American president had a letter as a full middle name? The answer is Harry S Truman. Truman's parents named him Harry, after his uncle Harrison, but they gave him no middle name so that both his grandfathers -- Solomon Young and Anderson Shipp Truman -- could claim he was named for them. This practice was not uncommon among the Scotch-Irish. In 1902, an issue of The Washington Star carried a cartoon, drawn by Clifford Berryman, of President Theodore Roosevelt. T. R. stood rifle in hand with his back turned toward a cowering cub. The caption read, "Drawing the line in Mississippi!" The reference was to a hunting expedition Roosevelt had recently taken in Mississippi. The president's hosts had trapped a bear cub for him to kill, but Roosevelt had refused to fire. Berryman's drawing received nationwide publicity, and it inspired a 32-year-old Russian-immigrant toy salesman from Brooklyn, one Morris Michtom, to make a stuffed copy of the bear cub for children. The fad caught on, and the dolls became known as teddy bears, in honor of our our 26th president. As the year progresses and we think more and more presidentially, try your hand at the following quiz, which touches on some wordy and literary facts about our chief executives. The first reader who e-mails five correct answers will win a $25 gift certificate for Borders Books and Music. The winner of the last Verbivore Challenge, "What's in a President's name? was John McNamee, who correctly guessed the answers to the following questions::
1. By the time they became president, two chief executives had deleted their first names. List the original full name of each of these men. Answer: Stephen Grover Cleveland and John Calvin Coolidge 2. What president simply reversed the order of his first and middle names? Answer: Dwight David Eisenhower 3. In what president's first name appears the last name, with the letters in order, of a later president? Answer: Rutherford B. Hayes -- Ford
|
Bookmark: http://www.salon1999.com/weekly/verb.html
Verbivore archive: http://www.salon1999.com/archives/verbivore.html