What?? No reference to The Sinkmaster?
Posted on 02/06/2004 7:29:47 AM PST by presidio9
'I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damned business," Chester Arthur once thundered. Well, Mr. 21st President, that wasn't true in 1881, and it sure isn't true today. Just in time for our annual celebration of America's Oval Officers comes "Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents," in which Cormac O'Brien collects all the delicious White House gossip "your teachers never told you."
Among the aromatic items:
George Washington spent an estimated 7% of his salary on booze.
Lifelong bachelor James Buchanan (pictured at left) weathered rumors about his close friendship with William Rufus King, who was Franklin Pierce's vice president. Washington wags referred to them as "Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy" and "Mr. Buchanan and his wife."
POTUS with the mostest John Quincy Adams was fond of skinny-dipping in the Potomac.
Zachary Taylor died from an overdose of bad cherries.
John Tyler, the 10th prez, married the woman his son, John Jr., was courting.
Poker-loving President Warren G. Harding played fast and loose with White House property. "During one heated game, [Harding] bet an entire box of priceless White House china and lost it," O'Brien writes.
Gerald Ford allegedly had a flatulence problem, "often blaming the Secret Service men surrounding him." In other presidential news, "Queer Eye" fashionista Carson Kressley has something to tell the current occupant of the White House:
"I wouldn't kick President Bush out of my bed," Kressley said during a recent taping of CNBC's "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch," but added: "Although
I do think he needs some sassy highlights."
Time-Warner's new twins
It was the kind of party where you'd hear this sort of exchange:
"Did you go to the Outsider Art Fair at the Puck Building?"
"Go? I chaired it!"
An only-in-New York crowd helped open the stunning Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle Wednesday night, eating roast beef off napkins and nosing around inside CNN, Williams-Sonoma, Borders, Whole Foods, Eileen Fisher, Thomas Pink, Aveda and all over the two-towered, 2.8-million-square-foot space. In black tie.
Tim and Nina Zagat savored the Cafe Gray hors d'oeuvres; Noche owner David Emil walked up a down escalator; socialite Carolyn Roehm and Jewell Jackson McCabe talked about the mansion Roehm rebuilt after a fire; publisher Jason Binn praised a woman who'd bought his Gotham mag gossip issue and Jacob the Jeweler showed his $125,000 world-map watch to Roshumba.
Time Warner chairman Dick Parsons told us, "This thing began in 1998. The [Center's] twin towers were meant to be a reflection of downtown." Asked if he ever had second thoughts about the design after 9/11, Parsons said, "No. Never. I'm very happy with it. What this brings to the neighborhood is vitality."
Jewel provided a cootie-ish moment as she started to sing, stopped, and asked the crowd, "Don't you guys know this song? You could clap for it, then."
But she made Coach CEO Lew Frankfort happy when she bought a $598 pink suede jacket at his store.
And Jon Stewart was, as ever, pitch-perfect as he told us, "This city is the most resilient place you'll ever find."
Jenny's block needs a rock
Two Bronx newspapers have taken up our call for Jennifer Lopez to donate her pink-diamond engagement ring from ex-fiancé Ben Affleck to benefit Holy Family School, which she attended and where her mother taught.
The Bronx Times and its sister paper, the Bronx Times Reporter, interviewed parents, including an old friend of Jenny from the Block.
"In interviews and in her music, Jennifer has stressed the importance of never forgetting where you came from," the pal, Liza Campoamor, told the papers' associate publisher, John Roche. "Jennifer has the chance to give back."
"I feel sorry for Jennifer ... but I love the idea of her donating that ring to Holy Family," Mathilde Sanabria told Roche. "The school sure could use it."
Lopez makes $12 million a movie. Children at the school (which Joanna Molloy also attended) have no playground equipment, and kindergartners and preschoolers are taught in the cafeteria and basement.
So donating the bauble to the school would certainly help, said Sanabria, adding: "The kids would flip out."
Nicole not a 'Gardener'
Nicole Kidman can't have every role. Fernando Meirelles, the Oscar-nominated director of "City of God," considered approaching the actress to star in "The Constant Gardener," based on John le Carre's novel.
"But I thought Nicole may be too old" to pass as the novel's 22-year-old heroine, Meirelles told us yesterday at the lunch Harvard prof Henry Louis Gates threw for him at Amaranth. (Ralph Fiennes plays the heroine's diplomat husband.)
Instead, Meirelles offered the role to Naomi Watts, even though, at 35, she's just a year younger than Nicole. It happens that Watts is tied up with "King Kong," so Meirelles is now talking to Kate Winslet, Rachel Weisz and Eva Green.
Meanwhile, he swears that everything's cool between him and Katia Lund, who was credited as his co-director on "City of God." One Brazilian report suggested that Lund was miffed that she didn't get an Oscar nod. "She just sent me an E-mail congratulating me," Meirelles said.
She's Gotti be a star
Move over, Ozzy and Paris. Victoria Gotti's life is about to become a reality show. The A&E network just signed up for a season of "Growing Up Gotti."
The daughter of the late Gambino family boss John Gotti tells us: "People may think they're going to see something like 'The Sopranos.' But I'm really just a single parent trying to raise three children."
The Star magazine columnist, whose executive producers are publisher Judith Regan and private eye Bill Stanton, says viewers might meet a few celebs. And boyfriends? "I don't date right now," she says. "But if if I go on one, I'll take everybody with me."
On the record
Now here's the perfect vinyl for your next hullabaloo. Back in 1961, when he was in prep school, future Democratic presidential frontrunner John Kerry played electric bass with the Electras. Yesterday, a copy of the band's one-and-only, self-titled album appeared on eBay, with a starting bid of $500. The liner notes describe Kerry as "the producer of a pulsating rhythm that lends tremendous force to all the numbers." Kerry remembers that being an Electra "was a very good time." But ex-bandmate Andrew Gagarin told The Washington Post: "The whole idea was to meet more babes."
Side dish
Sean (P. Diddy) Combs picked up a tidy $10,000 on a Super Bowl wager with his fellow half-time performer Kid Rock, we hear. Combs bet on Carolina during the second quarter, when the score was deadlocked at nothing. When the Patriots won but didn't cover the spread, Combs collected his 10Gs from the Detroit rocker...
Look for Arnold Schwarzenneger to hit the Grammy parties. The Governator "wants to become the anti-piracy czar," says a source. "He's been taking meetings with music and film execs, and you can bet he'll be schmoozing on Sunday." Chances are he won't miss the EMI bash at the L.A. County Museum of Art, where Sting, Steven Tyler, Coldplay, the White Stripes, Lisa Marie Presley, Norah Jones and Courtney Love are expected...
Janet Jackson gets canned from the Grammys, but not Justin Timberlake? So, in the eyes of CBS and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, it's not okay to flash a breast, but it is okay to violently rip a woman's top off? How polarizing...
P.S.: The picture of Drew Barrymore that appeared here earlier this week was from Seventeen magazine.
What?? No reference to The Sinkmaster?
In your dreams, you tasteless twink.
I wonder what the authors mean by "booze."
In those days almost everybody drank small beer or ale at mealtimes (including breakfast).
Why? Because water was dangerous to drink due to bugs like cholera, which were common then. The alcohol in a brew took care of that.
Washington also entertained many guests. If he didn't pay much of his income for his housing expenses, it's not shocking that his beverage bill would amount to 7% of his salary.
???
Gather round, chil'en, and let me tell you the truth about Mr. Buchanan for your's truly wrote a piece on him that was published in "Civil War" magazine many,many moons ago.
(Yes, I'll admit it-- I am a recovering free-lance writer)
In 1816 James Buchanan was an up and coming young man, and while he certainly enjoyed the company of the young ladies he kept his heart to himself...until he met Miss Ann Caroline Coleman. Who was:
a) A rich heiress (her papa was an extraordinarily rich iron master)
b) Ugly as a mud fence.
c) A kind, sweet person
d) Not stupid...or blind.
Needless to say, because she was #A, and despite the fact that she was #B (and #C), meant she has no lack of suitors for her hand. And though she was # A, she was also #D. She wanted to make sure the man she married loved her, not her inheritance.
She found him in James Buchanan. He did truly love her. And Miss Coleman dare not scare believe it.
To make a long story short: After a year or two of his tender and honest attentions, she agreed to marry him...on one condition: That he should go away for a few months to seek his fortune and if, on his return, their feeling for one another should remain true than, yes, she would gladly be his wife.
So Mr. Buchanan left the scene, and in doing so gave his enemy/rival suitors time to act. Fearing this fabulous treasure ship may be captained by someone other then one of themselves, they stared a whisper campaign to the effect that JB -- despite all his posturing -- was really only after Miss Coleman's money, and that, being a skillful actor, he had been playing her to a sucker all this time.
The result was not the expected dismissal of Mr. Buchanan from Miss Coleman's affection --- but Miss Coleman's suicide. His grief was inconsolable, for he did truly love this woman, and on her grave James Buchanan swore before God and his gathered friends that he would never marry. And he never did.
It is an oath, a sentiment, and a love that this generation find hard to either believe or understand.
(And as to the gossip about him by the Washington DC chattering class -- these were political opponents, and what sitting president never had his share of mud lobbed at him by his political "un-friends"?)
This seems to be some kind of interpolated number.
I would guess it is based on the amount of liquor he gave away in election campaigns.
Recent archaeological digs at Mt. Vernon have established that Washington was the largest distiller in the United States.
Any actual liquor purchases would likely have been restricted to beer, wine and liqueurs.
Washington personally led US troops to put down the "Whiskey Rebellion" of scofflaw distillers who refused to pay liquor taxes.
Now we know why. They were not only delinquent taxpayers, they were his competition and undercutting his prices.
So9
Right you are, my friend! President Washington's salary was $25,000 per year (the VP was somewhere around $10,000, I think). That $25K salary went for all expenses, and I do mean all.
Rent for, and up keep on, the Presidential Manor, clothes and shoes and hats for himself his family, his staff and servants, the charwomen and the laundresses; any and all medical expenses; food and fuel, firewood and lighting for the same; stables, the horses there in, carriages, grooms, lackeys, coaches, carriages and their up keep; every and all entertainment expenses -- food, wine, linen, invitations, candles, extra wait staff, extra kitchen help, musicians; the cost of all presidential correspondence and travel. As a result of this President Washington more often then not had to reach into his own pocketbook to make ends meet. "I left the presidency a poorer man than when I entered it," he is purported to have said.
So even if that 7% figure is correct it is not surprising considering that covered everything from the "small beer" drunk daily by all (for weak beer was safer to drink than safe water to find) to the most sophisticated wines enjoyed at state dinners.
Thank you, kind friend. Someone remind me to tell you the story of Andrew Jackson and the death of his wife. A real heart grabber if there ever was one.
Re the small beer: IIRC from a visit to Monticello, brewing for household use was an important daily operation there, and it was run by Mrs. Jefferson. While she and Mr. Jefferson may have spent money a bit too lavishly for their income, neither were ever known as over-imbibers, I don't think!
In your dreams, you tasteless twink.
Yeah thath right! Get in line you thlutty be-oytch!
Well, at least this complete waste of tax dollars will be remembered for something.
This could explain why the local high school golf team (does the 'marshall' thing at various charity tournaments) doesn't like to work Ford's foursome.
In contrast with the worst president to ever live, whose income went up about 600% from his previous gig as governor of Arkansas. I think I prefer people like Washington, who take a cut to serve their country rather than see the presidency opportunistically.
One can never be too careful, even today. Let's see here... couple ounces of Bombay Gin to ward off cholera... a splash of tonic water to guard against malaria... a lime wedge to prevent scurvy...
I will take issue with two things - Ann Coleman's portrait is in the article, and she's not all THAT ugly. Rather a large nose, but a nice forehead, good cheekbones, very pretty dark eyes and nice hair. Her friends said she was very kind and thoughtful, but inclined to be high-strung. Also, there was really never any certainty about suicide. She died of an overdose of laudanum, but given the lax quality control in those days and the way people abused the opium derivatives without any idea of dosage, it could well have been accidental (she apparently was in hysterics over Buchanan's departure from Lancaster.)
I would prefer to think charitably of her, that she did not intend to destroy herself but only to calm her nerves.
Lando 
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