5 through 15
Jul. 27th, 2004 09:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmcirvinSo Oliver Willis said some glowing things about Bill Clinton, and then "Conservative since 63" followed up and said:
Anyway, let's see, can I name them all? You got Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Martin van Buren, William Henry Harrison (of the one-month presidency), John Tyler, Polk... I'm drawing a blank on twelve through fourteen here, except that one of them was definitely Zachary Taylor. But fifteen was definitely James Buchanan.
Let's see, how'd I do?
...Damn! John Quincy Adams was after Monroe, not before Madison (so Madison isn't even on the list—I originally had him in the first paragraph as an illustrious figure from the era, though of course he's best known for things that happened before he was president). Taylor was number twelve, and the other missing names were Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce. Fillmore is almost the canonical obscure American president (probably because of his odd name), though I keep thinking he was later.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
samantha2074 and darkphonics will get mad at me for forgetting Pierce, who was from New Hampshire and went to Bowdoin.
So, in the list we have a few definite nonentities and some pretty important people, and it's obviously been a while since I took American history.
100 years from now he'll be as unknown as are the 5th to 15th Presidents -- go ahead, name them without looking them up.I think we'll have to wait to see whether he's right, but it's an odd choice of example, considering that the list includes Andrew Jackson. And James K. Polk, who is mostly forgotten except to They Might Be Giants fans, but who was extremely important, if not really admirable (during his administration, the United States doubled in size through naked imperial aggression). That nobody can remember their numbers is hardly a demerit. Jackson's on the twenty!
Anyway, let's see, can I name them all? You got Madison, Monroe, Jackson, Martin van Buren, William Henry Harrison (of the one-month presidency), John Tyler, Polk... I'm drawing a blank on twelve through fourteen here, except that one of them was definitely Zachary Taylor. But fifteen was definitely James Buchanan.
Let's see, how'd I do?
...Damn! John Quincy Adams was after Monroe, not before Madison (so Madison isn't even on the list—I originally had him in the first paragraph as an illustrious figure from the era, though of course he's best known for things that happened before he was president). Taylor was number twelve, and the other missing names were Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce. Fillmore is almost the canonical obscure American president (probably because of his odd name), though I keep thinking he was later.
samantha2074 and darkphonics will get mad at me for forgetting Pierce, who was from New Hampshire and went to Bowdoin.So, in the list we have a few definite nonentities and some pretty important people, and it's obviously been a while since I took American history.