The "Answers To Be Used On Jeopardy!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading one of the many sites I enjoy visiting when I came across a story telling me about a few Presidents of the United States were much more than the policies they backed or the speeches they gave.  There was a story for just about every President from the past, but I thought you might enjoy some of the more unusual stories that were told.  Hope you can find a couple that you may find funny, hilarious or just plain stupid.  I thought all of the following would make great answers for a Jeopardy competition.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  

George Washington:  Every President serves as the Commander-In-Chief, but nobody will ever outrank George Washington, since he was posthumously given the rank of General of the Armies of the United States, making him America's only six-star General.

James Madison:  President Madison and his wife, Dolley, helped popularize ice cream in America.  While serving in the White House he had ice cream flavors such as chestnut, asparagus and parmesan on the menu.  Dolley's favorite was oyster!  How could anyone enjoy eating any of those flavors?

James Monroe:  General George Washington gets all the credit for bravely crossing the icy Delaware River River during the American Revolutionary War, but Lieutenant James Monroe was part of an advance unit and crossed the river before Washington ever appeared along the shoreline.  Monroe was wounded at the Battle of Trenton, as Hessian soldiers shot him in the shoulder.

John Quincy Adams:  During the Presidential election of 1824 four candidates ran for President.  No-one won an outright majority and Adams was chosen as President by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Martin Van Buren:  Martin was the only President whose first language wasn't English.  He grew up in a Dutch-speaking community in New York.  His accent was only noticeable when he became visibly excited.

Zachary Taylor:  President Taylor was the second President to die in office.  He did not smoke or drink, but did chew tobacco.  Lots of it!  He had the reputation of never missing a sand-filled box that sat in the Oval Office and was his spittoon.

Millard Fillmore:  President Fillmore was an avid reader who on Christmas Eve in 1851, when the Library of Congress caught on fire, ran to the scene with a group of Congressmen and "rendered all the service in their power" to stop the fire.  He led the bucket-brigade early into Christmas morning.

Abraham Lincoln:  Honest Abe was an accomplished wrestler.  As a young man he competed in about 300 wrestling contests and lost just one match.  In 1830 he was crowned his county's wrestling champion and was heard to say: "I'm the big buck of this lick, and if any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns."

Ulysses S. Grant:  The "S" in Ulysses S. Grant doesn't mean anything.  It was a clerical error.  He received the erroneous middle name when a friend of his father, Thomas Hamer, nominated Ulysses for enrollment at West Point.  The initial stuck.  When sending a note to his future wife he wrote..."I have an 'S' in my name and don't know what it stands for."

Rutherford B. Hayes:  He was the only President who served during the Civil War who was wounded in combat.  He had four horses shot from under him, suffered a wounded knee, took a gunshot to his left arm, injured his ankle and took a gunshot at the Battle of Cedar Creek.

Grover Cleveland:  Long before he served as President of the United States, Grover Cleveland worked as an executioner.  He had previously been the humble sheriff of Erie County, New York and had the unpleasant job of wrapping the noose around the neck of two criminals.  His political opponents named him "The Buffalo Hangman."

William Howard Taft:  During Roosevelt's presidency, Teddy bears became all the rage.  Taft wanted something special to set his presidency apart for previous ones, so he chose the opossum.  Yep, the opossum!  Only problem was children didn't find "Billy Possum" as funny, cute and cuddly as the teddy bear.

Calvin Coolidge:  President Coolidge was the only president born on July 4.  He had an elector-powered mechanical horse installed in the White House after the Secret Service banned him from riding real horses outside.  The press dubbed the riding horse "thunderbolt" and Coolidge rode it up to three times a day.  

John F. Kennedy:  While some politicians use their family's wealth and influence to avoid military service, John F. Kennedy did the opposite.  He suffered from a slew of medical problems that disqualified him from serving in the Armed Forces so he got a fake health certificate from a family doctor to sneak into the armed forces.  Kennedy would command a patrol boat and receive a Purple Heart during his tour of the Pacific theater.

Lyndon B. Johnson: Long before he became President, he was a Texas schoolteacher.  He taught fifth, sixth and seventh grade, coached the debate team and kept a watchful eye over the playground.  He even served as a janitor.

Bill Clinton:  Bill's first job as a teenager was at an Arkansas grocery store, where he ran a comic book stand.  "I had two chests filled with perfectly preserved comic books and sold everyone of them.  I made about $100 and I felt like a millionaire.  I now know I was a fool.  If I had saved those comic books, they'd be worth $200,000 to $300,000 today."