I was just going through my photos and realized I left a lot of stuff out of my quick post about our White House tour, because I was in such a rush getting ready for the dinner last Saturday night.
First of all, Andrew, our Secret Service Agent/Tour Guide could have had a PhD in American history, he was so knowledgeable. Much of the most interesting information about the White House involves the First Ladies who lived there. For example, Andrew showed us a very large room that is now a parlor of some sort, but was originally the room where Abigail Adams, the first First Lady to reside in the White House, did all her own laundry. Also, Jacqueline Kennedy found that the White House archives and library were in appalling shape and she set up the archival system that is used today to catalog and protect the White House books, artwork and antiques.
There are beautiful portraits of the First Ladies all over the White House. This First Lady seems to be giving Denis a conciliatory pat for not supporting her in the Democratic primary.
The White House was set afire during the war of 1812. These charred lintel stones have been left exposed as a reminder of the fire and the war.
During the fire, fast-thinking Dolly Madison ordered her staff to cut this portrait of George Washington from its frame and roll it up so it could be carried through a window.
The White House windows all contain the original leaded glass panes, but after 9/11, some sort of bullet-proof/ explosion-proof panes were placed inside the windows.
The White House was also made airtight somehow, with a circulating pure air system that would protect the residents in the case of a biological or chemical attack. We also learned that there is a bunker under the East Wing that is very well-fortified. We saw a photo of the car that the president rides in. It looks like a regular Lincoln Navigator limousine, but, is, in fact, a sort of tricked-out tank. You can’t crush, explode, or bomb this thing. If the president is walking, anywhere, it’s right behind him.
Who can name this president?
And, for extra credit, who can name this handsome fellow?
I’m talking about the 4-legged one, of course.
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Dear Rose Ward:
about the BTW,I’m old comment. Nope, we aren’t!.
Do your know the age bracket of the largest population, and growing, in San Francisco?. Over NINETY years of age!. I took care of some of them while attending the University, and just this last year. And they are ‘crackers’, to mean, their minds are alert, they can talk politics like nobody else, know History, and are funny as all heck!. And, I doubt that you are anywhere near my SIXTY ONE. Maybe there was an ERROR in my birth certificate.. and then again I would ALSO have to change those of my sisters… must accept.
And about the testicle, it was served to me on a platter (online news, and early this morning too!). Franco was one mean *&^ of a *&^%$, who appeared as if reeking testosterone. And now, these doctors tell that he only had ONE?.
And to Ann:
I will try and watch mu pronouns and my verbs and other composition details. I know it hurts the ears (eyes) of the ones in the know… and I never intended to do such a thing. Really.
Good Morning Ann & fellow bloggers:
This morning I had planned an educational day for the child, There is a Civil War encampment down the street. There is also a tour of the local historic mansion, and something about Abraham Lincoln. Until he saw me reading the Sunday Paper, on line… here is prt of the article
Adam Sandler among stars to film in Southboro
Locals are extras; cast, crew here for week
By Priyanka Dayal TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
SOUTHBORO — Pilgrim Congregational Church will be full this week, even after the congregation leaves Sunday service.
Some of the people who will be filling the pews: Adam Sandler, David Spade, Kevin James, Chris Rock and Rob Schneider.
The movie stars are coming to Southboro to shoot the film “Grown Ups,” which is set to be released next March. The comedy is about five friends who reunite 30 years after their high school graduation and spend a Fourth of July weekend together.
The cast also includes Colin Quinn, Salma Hayek and Maya Rudolph.
Most of the filming will be at Chebacco Lake in the North Shore town of Essex, but cast and crew will be in Southboro from Monday to Friday this week, and on May 26.
Scenes in Southboro will be shot in and around the church, which sits on a hill next to a cemetery on Common Street.
The church scenes will appear at the beginning of the movie, when Sandler and company attend the funeral of their high school basketball coach.
P.S. Ann, DL make find this amusing….my son knew who everyone else was, except Colin Quinn… He wan’t even thought of when MTV first came to be… I’m Old…BTW we are done celebrity stalking, we are going to the Civil War Encampment.
Regarding Taft, they not only had to construct special chairs and toilets for his girth, they also had to make a special bathtub! A replica is on display at the National Archives (where I work) as part of their “Big” exhibit celebrating the 75th anniversary of the organization. In comparisson to modern hot tubs, whirpools, etc. it isn’t enormous-but there are photgraphs of four grown men sitting comfortably in the tub.
Taft, incidentially, lost about eighty pounds after leaving the White House, but was still a large man.
(Okay, now taking off my nerdy historian hat!!!)
Hello,
Caroline- That’s funny at least she was IN the truck singing that holiday favorite.
Barbara & Caroline
It was a nice ride, got off the highway and rode the coastline, met J.K., got an autograph..he talked to my son for a few minutes. A good time was had by all. Pea soup like fog on the way back though so we got on the highway for the return trek.
Have a good Sunday Everyone!
Ann:
These are the lyrics of Carla’s Quelqu’un m’a dit
I’m told that our lives aren’t worth much,
They pass like an instant, like wilting roses.
I’m told that time slipping by is a bastard
Making its coat of our sorrows.
Yet someone told me…
That you still loved me
Someone told me…
That you still loved me.
Well ? Could that be possible?
I’m told that fate makes fun of us,
That it gives us nothing and promises everything,
When happiness seems to be within our reach,
We reach out and find ourselves like fools.
Yet someone told me…
That you still loved me
Someone told me…
That you still loved me.
Well ? Could that be possible?
Well ? Could that be possible?
So who said that you still loved me?
I don’t remember any more, it was late at night,
I can still hear the voice, but I can no longer see the face,
“He loves you, it’s secret, don’t tell him I told you.”
You see, someone told me
That you still loved me
Did someone really tell me?
That you still loved me
Well, could that be possible?
I’m told that our lives aren’t worth much,
Passing in an instant, like wilting roses,
I’m told that time slipping by is a bastard,
Making its coat of our sadnesses.
That you still loved me
Someone told me…
That you still loved me.
Well ? Could that be possible?
And after watching Farrah’s program on television last night, I conclude that life, unlike the sticky bun I had for breakfast, REALLY has nuts.
Congrats to all correct contest guessers! I was at school yesterday for an after school club, by the time I got here the correct answers were already given and discussed…darn work…keeps me away from the really important doings of my day !! Anyway– the pictures were wonderful, have a great time Rose and a good weekend to all…
Rose — add my child to the “ruined” pile! Aerosmith is also her fave, tho the Beatles are not far behind. She’s 11. However, this is all on Daddy! She discovered his vinyls and then about 100 old cassette tapes. I had to find a man to install a cassette player in my truck recently. He did a great job, it’s right under the CD player and she’s now in heaven as we live 25 miles from our little town and she can now have “her” music. I think it’s great — though one day I did come running out in the morning to find her waiting for me listening and SINGING ALONG to none other than “Merry F’in C’Mas” . . .
Going to Portland, ME. tomorrow A.M . My son wants to meet Joey Kramer from Aerosmith,(sad part is the kid grew up on this music, I think I have ruined the poor child for life, I pulled out my “vinyls” from the first album, and 2nd ,3rd, He is like ‘Wow”.)He asked me if my Senoir prom Theme was “Fire”. He’s 14. He thinks he is amusing.
So if there are any more quizzes, I will be absent. BTW, unfortunately I am old enough to write my own note. I will take the make-up quiz…LOL
By the way, the pic didn’t show up that great on my screen… so my standby answer was Warren G Harding ( Don’t ask me why, cuz I don’t know.)
It didn’t work in H.S. either, but what the heck
Hope you ALL have a great weekend, see you Sunday/Monday
Dear all:
Sarah Curtis, Professor at SFSU, the BEST European Historian I have ever met. She came back just as Carla Bruni married AND ‘published’ her song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W8SrhLVl5U&feature=related
about which we had a few laughs, her ending:
“oh, the French, the French.. ”
http://bss.sfsu.edu/scurtis/
You can look up stuff in her sylabusses, I believe (unsure about the word and there is NO spell checker.)
Ann, Sarah is writing a book about NUNS, and she took a one year sabbatical that she spent in France, doing her research. I bet you that her book is going to be of interest. She is extremely classy, articulate and outspoken.
I enjoyed History of Eastern Europe and Russia from Anthony D’Agostino. I could not get enough of this professor. He (also) would get into the theme and carried you alongside.
He has published some books (link)
http://www.nyupress.org/books/Gorbachevs_Revolution-products_id-1483.html
But, it takes EFFORT to find his work. Shame. I do not think they even had it at the University’s book store!. I had real huge gaps in my memory bank, as to what happened in this world from date? to date? and these professors made all of the puzzle pieces blend in.
Hopefully, by August, I am back at the new University!! and they have this library to die for and I cannot wait!!.
“First Lady” is a title, so should therefore be capitalized. I’m glad David waited until after you left D.C. to share your room location.
Tyson, despite being a killing machine, looks like a love bug to me.
You are so right…Taft. Oops! Evan will be very disappointed in me. TR is still one of our favorite Presidents, though!
Bev, very funny (and true) about Tyson’s handler. And David, that is SCARY how on the ball you are about our room. Denis actually checks into hotels under a fake name. I not only check us in under our real name, but then I virtually broadcast our hotel and room number to the world wide web.
I love being away from my computer all day and then returning to so many comments! The correct answers are WIlliam Taft and, of course, dear Tyson. I don’t know why I find Tyson so endearing, when in fact, if that muzzle happened to fall off, it’s likely he’d be instantly flossing with Denis’s jugular vein.
I took President Taft’s photo because he was the largest president to hold office, weighing in at 300 pounds. I’m not sure if any president has weighed more than that since Taft, but none had weighed that much before. In fact, they had to have special toilets and chairs brought into the White House for him. In those days he was considered an enormous man. He looks like Teddy Roosevelt because that mustache was the style, but in fact, he was the last president to have facial hair while in office. It makes you wonder if JFK might not have grown some kind of groovy 60s sideburns and ’stache had he not been assassinated. Well, maybe it doesn’t make you wonder, but I wonder about these kinds of things.
Sometimes, kindly blog readers will email me to tell me that I’ve made a little mistake or a complete ass of myself. Thank you architect guy for informing me that the charred stones are not “cornice” stones, but are, in fact, “lintels”. Also, rereading the post, I’m not sure if the term “First Lady” is supposed to be capitalized or not. Anybody?
The president …Theodore Roosevelt perhaps?? Pic is a little dark and my glasses might possibly need cleaning!
The handsome 4 legged one: Tyson
I can only imagine how fascinating it must have been …. who knows …maybe one year I’ll get to see the capitol ….
Thanks for the neat posts — I am a real fan after discovering your site!
William Howard Taft (our most rotund President) and Tyson…in that order.
Love the photo’s, but please tell Denis the Low-Tides said, he should have worn a nicer shirt to the whitehouse.
TYSON!
William Taft? And Tyson, definitely.
Ooops, I answered to hastily about the presidential portrait. I thought he looked too rotund to be Teddy Roosevelt, but forgot that they all had those long mustaches back then! It is actually William Taft.
William Howard Taft – 27th President of the United States!! Wow. I actually knew that one! But the extra credit…awwww, shoot.
That quiz was too easy Ann! Teddy Roosevelt (though not a very flattering portrait) and Tyson. Now, if you wanted to know the name of the handler, that would take a little longer. Since I’ve got two Secret Service agents as neighbors (I live near DC), it might not be too hard to track them down. By the way, those Secret Service guys must consider it part of their job to work out, since my neighbors are also hunky.
A harder question would have been “In what hotel and room did we stay?” After looking at your balcony photo and consulting Google Maps and Images, I’m pretty confident you stayed at the Hay-Adams Hotel on the 7th floor directly above the front entrance in front of Lafayette Square. Yes or no? Isn’t technology cool? OK, maybe a little scary too!
Great pictures, Ann. I believe that is President Taft sitting in the chair.
Is the dog Tyson?
Again, thank you so much for taking us all on this wonderful journey with you.
Have a good weekend.
I think the president in the picture looks like Grover Cleveland, final answer. DL I don’t do Hillary either, glad she moved to NY, they can have her. Just can’t remember that dogs’ name and I am not going to cheat and look back. Starts with a B?
It’s a bit dark, but isn’t that Chester Arthur?
OOOOOH! A contest and I’m 1st to answer!
The pooch is Tyson and I’m guessing on the Pres.
Cleaveland or Taft.. can’t be sure.
What a great once in a lifetime tour for you guys. I’m totally jealous.
Wendy from CT
Ann
I think that is Grant.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/UlyssesSGrant/
18. ULYSSES S. GRANT 1869-1877
Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarreled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868.
When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted “a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms.”
Born in 1822, Grant was the son of an Ohio tanner. He went to West Point rather against his will and graduated in the middle of his class. In the Mexican War he fought under Gen. Zachary Taylor.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was working in his father’s leather store in Galena, Illinois. He was appointed by the Governor to command an unruly volunteer regiment. Grant whipped it into shape and by September 1861 he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers.
He sought to win control of the Mississippi Valley. In February 1862 he took Fort Henry and attacked Fort Donelson. When the Confederate commander asked for terms, Grant replied, “No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.” The Confederates surrendered, and President Lincoln promoted Grant to major general of volunteers.
At Shiloh in April, Grant fought one of the bloodiest battles in the West and came out less well. President Lincoln fended off demands for his removal by saying, “I can’t spare this man–he fights.”
For his next major objective, Grant maneuvered and fought skillfully to win Vicksburg, the key city on the Mississippi, and thus cut the Confederacy in two. Then he broke the Confederate hold on Chattanooga.
Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief in March 1864. Grant directed Sherman to drive through the South while he himself, with the Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.
Finally, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered. Grant wrote out magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent treason trials.
As President, Grant presided over the Government much as he had run the Army. Indeed he brought part of his Army staff to the White House.
Although a man of scrupulous honesty, Grant as President accepted handsome presents from admirers. Worse, he allowed himself to be seen with two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk. When Grant realized their scheme to corner the market in gold, he authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to sell enough gold to wreck their plans, but the speculation had already wrought havoc with business.
During his campaign for re-election in 1872, Grant was attacked by Liberal Republican reformers. He called them “narrow-headed men,” their eyes so close together that “they can look out of the same gimlet hole without winking.” The General’s friends in the Republican Party came to be known proudly as “the Old Guard.”
Grant allowed Radical Reconstruction to run its course in the South, bolstering it at times with military force.
After retiring from the Presidency, Grant became a partner in a financial firm, which went bankrupt. About that time he learned that he had cancer of the throat. He started writing his recollections to pay off his debts and provide for his family, racing against death to produce a memoir that ultimately earned nearly $450,000. Soon after completing the last page, in 1885, he died.
Thanks for more pics and stories you learned about ! So cool!
Tyson is the four-legged handsome guy you fell in love with in DC.
The big dude in the portrait is William Howard Taft, who was not only President of the United States, but Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
I have always had a great admiration for Jackie Kennedy, she had grace,beauty and style…
I actually wrote to the Smithsonian to find out what happened to her pink dress she wore on Nov 22, 1963….
Its sealed in an archive in the Institiute and I believe it will remain that way for 100 yrs…
I have the letter packed in one of my memorabilia totes, now I have to go thru and get it to make sure my information is accurate…
Glad you go to visit and get a personal one on one tour and information, what a wonderful experience!!!!
Ann
That is Tyson.
The president?, cannot see face well, looks like civil war era, early.
I would so love to take the tour. We are such history freaks in our household! I’m hoping to take the kids to MD to visit my sister & do a day trip to DC. We haven’t been since Joshua was a toddler. I think the twins would love it!
The extra credit…Teddy Roosevelt (one of our favorite presidents – Evan just did a report on him, so if anyone needs any TR facts let me know, LOL!) and Tyson! (I will admit I had to scroll back to a previous post for Tyson’s name, though!!)
Teddy & Tyson..in that order!
What that is Tyson!! (named either after the chicken brand or the fighter,, I am going with the fighter) Great pics from inside the White House.
Also maybe…Chester Arthur, or William Taft, so in other words…. I don’t really know…. HELP!
Now Ann Being a BRIT i will give it a go….. is it Winfield Scott Hancock?? and also who can forget gorgeous lovely TYSON!!! ..
Great info and what a great tour you had….. Tysons handler is super sexy though…. makes me want to get on all fours and bark….
Ann:
I love all of the interesting facts and behind-the-scenes info you’re giving us as a result of your tour of the White House last weekend. Great stuff!!
The president in the painting is Theodore Roosevelt. Right?
And the handsome 4-legged creature is the photo is Tyson, one of our country’s beloved security dogs.
I don’t think I am correct but I am going to say Roosevelt. And now for the really important subject – thats “TYSON”.
Great photos Ann. Its been years since I have been there – I’ve been wanting to go in the last few years. I so love history and DC is such an electric place.
Good morning Ann,
First of all, thanks for all the pictures and interesting facts about the White House. Our family was in Washington a few years ago, but were unable to get tickets for the tour.
I do believe that the President is Grover Cleveland and the other is of course – Tyson – my favorite!
Ann,
Great pics,interesting info.
Xtra credit TYSON
Pesidential portrait Warren G Harding (?)