Man, I Don't Know My Presidents Monday #28 Woodrow Wilson

NickNames

• The Schoolmaster in Politics
• The Professor
• The Phrasemaker
• Coiner of Weasal Words

 

Trivia

• Wilson didn’t learn his letters until he was 9, didn’t learn to read until he was 13. So, Good News, Illiterate tweens! You too can grow up to be president of Princeton and the good ole US of A. But…you  probably won’t.
• Though they never met, Sigmund Freud wrote a treatise on Wilson that claimed he likened himself to Jesus Christ.
• Wilson was married when he was in office to Edith Bolling Galt Wilson. Is it just me or do her middle and maiden names sound like they should be hyphenated and used as a nickname like “Machine Gun” Kelly?
• An avid golfer, Wilson used a black ball when he played in the snow.
• Woody Guthrie is named after him (Woodrow Wilson Guthrie).
• Election results were broadcast for the first time by WWJ in Detroit, MI. (What, did they not have hologram results with Wolf Blitzer back then?)
• After suffering a massive stroke that left him partially paralyzed and nearly blind, his wife ran a “Petticoat Government” She was also referred to as the Iron Queen, the Presidentress and the Regent. Generally considered the most powerful First Lady there ever was.
• Woodrow Wilson had a pet sheep named “Old Ike” that would chew tobacco and graze on the South Lawn.
• Second president to address Congress (the first was Washington).
• His vice president Marshall was the one to utter the famous bon mot, “What this country needs is a good five cent cigar.” Here-Here.