by
Roger Barr |
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Abraham Lincoln.
Honest Abe. Abe the Babe. The Lincoln Log. Abraham Lincoln. No
matter what you call him, it's always a name that strikes fear
into the hearts of men. He's been the subject of many campfire
tales over the years, but there's one scary story in particular
that can send a chill up anyone's spine. Before he became
president, Abe spent much of his time splitting rails and scaring
young children with his freakish demeanor. Most of the kids would
run away giggling when he scared them, but one young boy was truly
horrified of Abe. For some sick reason, Abe really got off on
this, and soon decided to take it to the next level.
[image missing]
Woodcut
from the Presidential Art Series,
"Lincoln Terrorizes Sleeping Child" |
Throughout
1855 Lincoln would visit the boy while he was asleep in his bed.
Abe didn't even need a ladder to reach the boy's window because he
was so damned tall. Abe would pry open the windows and dump a bowl
of hot grits on the face of the boy, instantly waking him up as he
screamed in terror and agony. Abe would run off into the moonlight
cackling, "GRITS SURE ARE THE PITS, EH SONNY BOY? AHAHAHA!"
One night,
when Abe came to visit the boy for more harassment, the boy was
gone. Nobody knew what had happened to him, not even his parents.
Still, they were sure that he had gone mad due to the fear of
Abe's weekly visits. But that boy would resurface roughly ten
years later.
That boy's
name? John Wilkes Booth. |
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Now here's a
guy with an inventive mind. Andrew Johnson was never
satisfied with the speed of a horse and buggy. He always believed
that man was destined to travel long distances at a much faster
pace. The horse and buggy just wasn't cutting it. So, Johnson
explored other options.
First, he
tried the "kangaroo and buggy". Sure they had powerful legs—but
jumping with a buggy attached to them? Bad idea. Shortly after the
kangaroos jumped in the air, the buggy landed hard on the ground
and shattered into pieces. Johnson opted to use an animal with
powerful legs, but one that wouldn't jump around so much. He
figured the Cheetah would be the perfect animal.
Unfortunately, Johnson never would learn just how fast the
"Cheetah and Buggy" would really go—soon after he whipped one of
the cheetahs to get it moving, it turned on him, tore him apart,
and had itself a presidential dinner. |
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Ulysses S. Grant
was quickly removed from the office of the President when it was
determined that, "No man who goes by the name 'Ulysses' could have
been born on American soil." Soon after his removal he was tried
as a warlock and burned alive. |
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Rutherford B. Hayes
banished wines and liquors from the White House, bringing some
much-needed dignity to the office. However, that dignity quickly
vanished about two weeks later, following Hayes' announcement that
"stripper poles" be installed in every room. |
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James Garfield
had one of the must difficult Presidencies in American history.
This was mostly because people wouldn't stop teasing him about
being lazy and having an insatiable craving for lasagna. His
father Jim warned him that his buying a dog and naming it 'Odie'
wasn't going to help things either. |
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Nobody likes a
guy with two first names. That being said, Arthur Chester
wasn't a very popular President. The people demanded that he
change his last name or step down from office. He desperately
wanted to remain President because he felt he could really help
out the country, so he agreed to their terms. He changed his last
name to "Puppysmasher"... Arthur Puppysmasher. He was assassinated
shortly after. |
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Nobody knows
how Grover Cleveland was elected into office. Some say he
won a bet, others believed it was blackmail. Regardless, he was
certifiably insane. When confronted with some railroad strikers,
Cleveland responded, "If it takes the entire army and navy of
the United States to deliver a post card in Chicago," he
thundered, "that card will be delivered."
Nobody knew
what in the hell he was talking about or what post cards had to do
with the railroad strikers, but the very next day, the army and
navy showed up in Chicago with a single postcard in hand. The
postcard was then loaded into a cannon and fired at the railroad
strikers.
Since the
card was instantly obliterated, nobody knew what was written on
it. Cleveland simply chuckled, "Suck on that, Chicago!" He
then loaded himself in the cannon, thinking he could fire himself
back to the White House. His flaming corpse made it a spectacular
twenty-six feet, giving rise to similar human cannonball acts from
that day forward. |
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One of the
first politicians to conduct "front-porch" campaigns, Benjamin
Harrison tried to connect with the average American. It went
well for a while, making him seem much more down to earth than
most presidents—but he soon crossed some boundaries that could
never be undone.
Never
satisfied with his way of connecting with the people, he started
insisting that they have him over for supper. Soon after, he
instituted "sleepover" campaigns. Some months later, the world's
first "I'll move in with you, but can you cover my rent this
month? I'm betting on a horse next week, and there's no way I can
lose! I swear I'll have the rent for you soon, okay?" campaign was
met with mixed results. No president (or human) in history has
received so many restraining orders. |
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Why the
charred, cannon-launched remains of Grover Cleveland were
re-elected in 1892 remains a mystery to this day. What's even more
peculiar is that his corpse proved to be more effective in office
than his former conscious self. |
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A Speaker of
the House once said that William McKinley kept his ear so
close to the ground, his entire skull was now full of
grasshoppers. These grasshoppers inevitably laid eggs—their
hatchlings took control of his mind soon after. A few weeks later
he was seen hopping in an open field rubbing his legs together, a
sight not seen since Andrew Jackson's presidency. He died abruptly
in 1901 from pesticide poisoning. |
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Theodore Roosevelt
constantly quoted one proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big
stick..."
The problem
was, he spoke so softly that nobody could hear a damned
word he said. When they became agitated and raised their voice to
him, that's when he'd break out the stick. Due to all of the
"stick time" that he dished out, he went through more cabinet
members than any other president in history. |
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It was said
that, "Roosevelt has cut enough hay. Taft is the man to put it
into the barn." But William Taft had no intention of
stopping at the barn. Taft started putting hay just about
everywhere he went... mailboxes, windowsills, baby carriages, it
didn't matter. Taft just wanted to make sure everybody had enough
hay. He didn't really care about whether people were starving or
homeless. But the hay thing? Taft had the hay thing covered. |
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"No one but
the President seems to be expected to look out for the general
interests of the country." is what Woodrow Wilson said
about his role of representing the people. "I don't know about
you people, but I love me some war!" he proclaimed. Shortly
thereafter, the United States had declared war on Germany.
Once the war
had ended, however, Wilson found himself in need of more conflict.
With Congress turning down his suggestion to declare war on
Iceland, Wilson went into seclusion for the remainder of his
presidency. When he was finally out of office, he headed straight
for Mexico. A few years later, he returned to America and started
up a massive underground cock-fighting organization. When asked
about why he got into cock-fighting, Wilson said, "This is as
close to war as I'm gonna get!" |
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Before his
nomination, Warren G. Harding declared, "America's
present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but
normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but
adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the
dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in
internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality; not
butterscotch, but caramel; not asphalt, but artificial turf; not
smurfs, but snorks; not Pacman, but Ms. Pacman; not metrosexuals,
but gay cowboys; not Chumbawumba, but Ace of Base..."
From that
point onward, his cabinet did not allow him to speak, and instead
had him answer questions with a simple "yes" or "no" by stomping
his feet once or twice. |
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