HAIL TO THE CHIEFS

Today we celebrate Presidents Day, so I'd like to give a big shout out to my favorite chief executive, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Who else spent the last twelve years of his life steering our country through the Great Depression and most of World War II...from a wheelchair, for gosh sakes!!? The man was amazing. Every month when my Social Security check arrives, I look to the sky and say, "Hallelujah! Thank-you, thank-you, FDR!"

My second favorite Prez is Abraham Lincoln, The Great Emancipator. Not only do I appreciate that he lost his life for being a champion of the anti-slavery momvement, but he grew up poor, two of his sons died in their childhoods, and he was married to a woman who suffered from all sorts of physical and mental ailments--including being a compulsive shopper. Yikes! I suspect that being President was a walk in the park compared to being her husband. No wonder he looks stoned on Mount Rushmore.

Yesterday on "CBS Good Morning" there was an interview with the grandson of President John Tyler. "Whoa!!!" I thought to myself. "How can this be? John Tyler was our 10th President. Shouldn't this interviewee be his great-great grandson or something even greater?" Well, it turns out that Pres. Tyler married a second time later in life and at age 68 fathered a son who also married a second time later in life. At age 75, he had a son--the man being interviewed, who is now 83. The interviewer asked grandson Tyler if he planned to follow suit and become a parent in his golden years. His sweet 80-ish wife next to his side looked horrified at the question. "Not with me!" she shuddered. You tell 'em, girl!

While I'm on the topic of Presidents, I recently read an interesting bio about President William McKinley and the events that led up to his assassination in 1901. Library Lady says a new bio about President John Garfied, also assassinated, is a better read, so I've put it on my list of future books to check out. I'm also hoping to find something on Warren G. Harding, who supposedly was the worst President in history until Richard Nixon came along. Mama Bore says there was talk "way back when" that his wife poisoned him with shellfish, so I'm hoping maybe I can find a Harding bio/mystery to read.

Oh, I could ramble on and on about Presidents we have loved and lost. For better or for worse, they have given up years, or in William Henry Harrison's case--a month, of their lives to serve their country, and I thank them for that. The Flaming Bore has all the political ambition of a slug--a bi-partisan slug, actually, and I choose not to run for public office. These days, about all I'm gonna run for is the bathroom.