We visited Madame Tussaud's wax museum today and there were some interesting facts to be gleaned, most of them having to do with the hall of presidents. Coming eye to eye, so to speak, with so many of our chief executives, it didn't take me long to notice that most of them were... yes, they were white men, but they were also blue-eyed white men. I was curious enough to do a little research, and it turns out that only six, six! of our presidents have had brown eyes. Can you guess who? The answer will appear at the bottom of this post.
Another fascinating detail was that our shortest president, James Madison, was officially 5'4", but seriously? That measurement HAD to be in either on his toes or in his clunky shoes, because that guy was super short. Our final bit of presidential trivia had to do with facial hair. The founding fathers were clean shaven with the following chief executives transitioning to some serious mutton chops. After that, beards and mustaches were quite common until the early 20th century. Think about it, dear reader, what serious candidate for that office has had facial hair in your memory? If you can remember Thomas Dewey, then that's who, but the last president with any kinda anything on his face was Taft.
Of all the 43, my personal favorite was Andrew Jackson; there was something very old hickory about the guy, but that's hardly surprising, right?
Brown-eyed Presidents: John Quincy Adams, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Barack Obama. (For the record, three of the six were not elected president, but only took office after their predecessor was assassinated.)
The Gillette safety razor was invented for Wodrow Wilson!
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