Ugliest Presidents in History

5. William McKinnley - jowls like a bulldog, eyebrows like shag rug from the 1970s.

















4. John Tyler – anorexic before it was fashionable.


















3. James Madison – if he HAD hair on top, he’d have a mullet. At least he had his height to fall back on… oh wait, no he didn’t.
















2. Lyndon Johnson – big nose, big ears, and deep set eyes - a hulking figure with no respect for other people’s personal space.
















1. Martin Van Buren – picture speaks for itself. What scares me though is that if THIS is how he looked on ‘picture day’ imagine what he must have looked like every other day of his life.

Christmas Shopping for the Historian

Tired of buying the historian in your life some heavy book that no on else in the family would ever be tempted to read? Perhaps you'd be tempted to purchase a present that can be enjoyed by young and old, historian and people who like interesting things, alike. I am, of course, referring to the Forgotten Presidents Puppet Set.

The present that is not only educational, but also hours of fun for the entire family.

The Last Barrier

I am excited to see the U.S. take a historic stance and break down the racial barrier to the presidency. It was in 1870 that the 15th Amendment to the Constitution was passed - the amendment that made it illegal to bar someone from voting based on their race.

Now only one barrier is left - the gender barrier. It took fifty years after the passage of the 15th Amendment for the 19th Amendment to be passed. This was the amendment that allowed women to vote -- black and white women. I don't want to turn my eyes to the future too soon, but I sure hope it doesn't take another fifty years before the first woman attains the presidency.

Presidents and Ipods

Audible.com is having a president's day sale and as part of their promotion that having lists of what they think some of the big name presidents would have listened to had they had ipods.

George Washington apparently would been interested in books about war and self-help books on how to influence people and be an effective leader.

William Henry Harrison has a list that includes a number of men's health books and ways to get more done faster - like inauguration speeches.

Harry Truman's lists contains a bunch of spy novels.

Bill Clinton has a list that includes everything from the importance of truth, jazz, fast food, sex, and a tome about Hillary's upcoming run for president.

As relatively pointless as these lists are, it could be a fun party/Phi Alpha Theta game to come up with lists of what TV shows, books, music former presidents would enjoy and why.

Presidential Celebrity Doppelgangers

Okay... this is what happens when you have too much time on your hands. I ran George Washington's picture through a face recognition program that claims to match pictures up to their celebrity look-alikes. The results were surprising. Apparently the celebrity that most looks like Washington is Takeshi Kitano - the 5' 5" Japanese actor and director. Who would have guessed?



Of course, once I got started down this path I couldn't just stop with Washington. Therefore, I loaded up a picture of Abraham Lincoln into the face recognition program and what do you know - out popped Jean-Michel Jarre - the French composer and music producer. Yuck.



I decided to give it one more shot and put in a picture of Warren G. Harding - reputedly one of America's best looking presidents - and imagine my surprise to discover that if Yitzhak Rabin and Madonna had ever had a child, he would look a lot like Harding.

I would also like to know what Bill Clinton and John Ashcroft would think about being 68% celebrity matches for Harding.