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Presidents Love Their Ridiculous Pets · Ridiculous History

• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Of all the addresses in the fair United States of America,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: perhaps the most prestigious is six Pennsylvania Avenue. Welcome to
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the show. My name is Ben. Bears and raccoons and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: alligators and stuffy old white men. Oh my my name
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: is Nola. And this is ridiculous history. And we were
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: just chatting off air with the the third member of
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: our triumvirates, a super producer, Casey Pegram, about animals, right,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: about pets, About the government, and of course about history
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: because we've looked at some weird presidential things before. We've
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: mentioned some, um but when you when you get down
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: to the nitty gritty, the lagoons and peanuts, oh, those
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: are the same thing, uh, the beans and nuts of
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the of the situation. Presidents and presidential families are like
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: any other family. They're just like you or I. Of course, yes, yeah,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: you know. They do people stuff. They wear pants, put
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: them on, you know, one leg at a time, as
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: they say, yeah, they brush their teeth. They might have
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: servants that put their pants on for them in this case,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: that's that's different and I don't have that right. Or
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: they might have someone brushing their teeth. They might have
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: a machine that's been custom built to put pants on them.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: But we're not talking about pants machines today, are we been. No, No,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: we are talking about something that is, I would say,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: at the very least equally fascinating. Yeah, we're talking about
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: pets because, you know, in the interest of of appearing
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: as as normal human beings and you know, and possibly
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: because of genuine love of animals, presidents often traditionally have pets,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: although number forty five has a shoot pets and has
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: spoken against pets, saying they were quote low class. But
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: we're not here to talk about that today. We're talking
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: about the legacy of presidential pets, particularly some kind of
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: weird ones. Yes. First off, I am baffled. That's new
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: information to me. I can't believe. Really, no pets, huh, No, pets. Wow,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: that's kind of unusual historically because the other forty four presidents,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the majority of them did have some sort of while
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: they were a family member, did have some sort of
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: animal companion and familiar if you will. Yeah, so familiar
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: if you will. And when we say animal companion, of course,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: we mean stuff like your typical dog. You know, they
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: might have a pooch, they might have a cat or something.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: But that's not it, because you see, although the base
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: similarity remains, the fact is that when you hold the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: highest office in the land, you and your family members
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: get a little more a leeway, you have a little
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: more agency. And so it turns out that there are
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: quite a few exotic pets the presidents have had in
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the past. Ye did you know there's a thing called
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: the Presidential Pet Museum? Then yes, I would love to
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: check that out. But according to them, John Quincy Adams,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: who was the son of John Adams and also, as
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: it happens, the sixth president of the United States, he
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I was about to say, ruled everned from eighteen eighty nine,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: and legend has it, I don't know, maybe that's not
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: a legend, but uh, allegedly, let's say he had an
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: alligator that he kept in an unfinished room, the east
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: room of what was then called the Resident's House. That's
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: not very creative. It wasn't until Teddy Roosevelt changed the
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: name officially to the White House in nineteen o one.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: But this alligator apparently was gifted to Adams by the
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: French military officer and revolutionary hero and uh, and a
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: important historical figure in the play Hamilton's Marquis de Lafayette Um,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: who fought with the US against the British forces during
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the American Revolution and also lays down some sick bars
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: in Hamilton's So the story goes that he would keep
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: me kept this gator in a bathtub. Yeah, in this
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: unfinished room and what was then called the President's house,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: and his his presidential prank was to surprise people by
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: having this alligator got you. Oh, there goes your leg
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: ha ha. President. That's how he ends every prank. He
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: laughs and mentions he's president. There are some people who
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: would raise plot holes in this, right. So Frank Masati,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: who is an ecologist and biologist at the University of Florida, says,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: he points out that if you had a large alligator
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: in a bathtub in today's world, that's the thing. The
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: alligators started off small, and you know, as it matured,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: it grew larger and larger. Uh. He said that it
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: would be cruelty to animals. But also in that day
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: and age, people didn't think about cruelty to animals near
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: the same way. Here's the thing, there's kind of this
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: cycle of I would say legends or folklore about gators
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: in the White House. Because there's also another story that says, uh,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: the son of thirty first President Herbert Hoover. A century later,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: in three his son Alan Henry Hoover also allegedly had
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: two gators. But the problem is there aren't many primary sources, right,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: this is sort of lore. We don't even know the
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: names of these three alleged gaiters, right, Yeah, it's true.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: According to the White House Historical Association's Evan Phifer, the
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: whole thing with Lafayette, it's it is has been passed around,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: but they can't they haven't placed their hands on the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: actual origin of this story or, like you said, any
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: kind of real primary documentation that is based as Phifer says,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: in reality. Joel Trees of the w h h A says, quote,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: there's no verifiable documentary evidence of that story. I think
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: it's probably a legend, but it's it's a pretty interesting
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: legend just the same. And that's legend or no, not
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the only weird exotic pet that trapes through the White House, right,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: we have phantom gaiters, Which is a cool phrase, and
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I'm so happy that we got a chance to say
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: it on air. I'm gonna just look that one more time,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Phantom Gators, Anton Gators. But you are absolutely right. No,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: there have been quite a few strange pets. One thing
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: that probably sticks out to a lot of people when
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: you hear it is Thomas Jefferson, the third president from
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: eighteen o one to eighteen o nine, had a pair
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: of grizzly bears. Yeah. We're talking to superroducer Casey before
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: the show, and he was reminded of a Paul F.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Tompkins bit talking about how wouldn't it be great if
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: we could just keep like something like a bear small forever?
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: And even though it was ravenous and one, you just
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: kind of patch you like a cat attacking your hand, um,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and you know that'd be pretty manageable. So Jefferson got
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: a pair of little grizzly bear cubs. I hope the
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: mom isn't around. That would be a blood bath. But
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: he got those as a gift from an explorer of
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the American West. Yeah, Captain Zebulon Pike love that. So
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: names were so much cooler. Our names are, okay, but
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Zebulon so he should be followed with like the Great, right,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Zebulon the Great and terrible. The bears arrived around the
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: same time. Pike sent a letter in October of eighteen
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: o seven explaining he had found the male and female
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: cubs in the southern region of the Continental Divide, so
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: the mother was not around. Um. He recognized Pike that
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: is that the grizzly was a different species of bear
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: from those found in the east, and he said that
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: they are considered by the natives of that country as
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the most ferocious animals on the continent. And he Jefferson
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: must have been aware of this because he would have
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: heard from Lewis and Clark about encounters with grizzlies, and
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: our buddy Evan Phifer over at the White House Historical
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Association made a point that these bear cubs were a
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: smash sensation because people had never seen these before. This
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: was not something that was around. They did not have
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: them in zoos in the area. The zoos probably weren't
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: even thing. Yeah, this was this is very early on
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: in the existence of again at the time the President's House,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: so it was a big deal. People were excited to
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: see if the bears lived in a little enclosure that
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: was on the lawn. Um and then eventually they were
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: moved to Philadelphia, right, Yeah, And people assume that because
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: they have been in continual contact with humans as cubs,
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  Speaker 1: that they would maybe grow up to be gentle giants
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: and large and calm and more docile. Yeah, and that
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: was not the case. One of them eventually broke out
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: of its cage and terrorized the family of the man
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  Speaker 1: who was taking care of them and had to be shot,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and then the other one had to be put down
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: as well, because it turns out that one of our
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: continent's most ferocious apex predators is not the kind of
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: thing that you can just take home and hang out
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: with unless you could miniaturize them. Unless you could miniaturize them. Yes,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: And speaking of smaller pets, I gotta tell you, man,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: have you ever seen those those YouTube videos of people
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: who have a raccoon that just hangs out with them?
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I have. I have a friend whose parents kept several
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: raccoons and kind of a glass enclosure that was sort
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: of built into the wall kind of, and they take
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: them out and they were pretty chill and cuddly and
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: kind of fun. Did you play with I don't remember
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: if I did, but I definitely saw them handling them,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and it sort of acts sort of like a combination
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: between a monkey and a cat. That's a good description.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: And Grace Coolidge, who was the wife of Calvin Coolidge,
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  Speaker 1: President number thirty from nineteen to nineteen nine, did the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: very same thing with a raccoon named Rebecca. Rebecca the raccoon.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: My heart is melting. Uh So the weird thing about
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: this raccoon, and I don't want you know, if you
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: dislike the Coolidge and administration, just to understand this was
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: a very different time. Originally, Rebecca did not have a
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: name because she was traveling to the White House to
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: be part of the Thanksgiving menu. I'm sorry. They were
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: going to cook the raccoon and eat her come again.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: But they fell in love with her, and so they said, oh,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: we were going to eat you, but now we're gonna
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: name you Becky Thanksgiving miracle. Is that sort of like
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: giving clemency to the turkey. This feels a little bit
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: more organic. Yeah, it feels like she just charmed her
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: way into their heart. And uh and the weirdest thing
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: about it is that they kind of spoiled her. They
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: had this little gold plated inscribed collar with Rebecca on it,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and they had a little cage for outside, and she
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: just hung out until it went rabbit and they had
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: to put her down. I made that up. Oh my gosh,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you made that. I know, because that
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: last one with the bears was a bummer. We need
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a little yeah, we need. We don't know what happened
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: to Rebecca the raccoon ultimately a but it does seem
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: as though she brought a lot of joy into the
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: lives of of of all that she encountered. Um in
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the in the White House, and thankfully she was not
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: consumed at the holiday table. She looks really happy in
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: the pictures. Yeah, yeah she does. And um, Grace Coolidge
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the dour looking, but she really seems to to enjoy
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: the company of this raccoon. Um. Next we have we're
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: sort of stepping up with the chain of varmouts. I
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: guess you could call him right a badger. There we go,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: a bag of badgers, A bag of badgers. That's a
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: deep cut for fans of the show, just the one
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: this time and this was one of Theodore Roosevelt's pets,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: And we gotta go deep with Teddy Roosevelt President number
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: twenty six from nine nine so many pets. This man
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: had a menagerie of animals that he brought with him
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: to the White House. And UH. One of the famous
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: ones was Josiah the Badger, who was often totaled around
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the White House grounds by Young Archie's son. But listen,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna laundry list these because they're just too charming there.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: They give me such joy. Josiah never bit faces, really,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: only he would bite legs sometimes, So I'm just gonna
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: laundry list these. This comes from UH, the National Park
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Service website, and this is a list of the Roosevelt's
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: family pets. They included a small bear named Jonathan Edwards,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: a lizard named Bill, guinea pigs named Admiral Dewey, Dr Johnson,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Bishop Done Fighting, Bob Evans, and Father O'Grady, Maud the Pig,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Josiah the Badger, Eli Yale the blue macaw, Baron Spreckel
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the hen, a one legged rooster, a hyena, a barn owl,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Peter the rabbit, and of worse, who could forget Algonquin
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: the pony, oh Gonquin, what fond memories we have a
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: lot of times frolic at on the lawn you and
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: fighting Bob Evans, that fighting Bob Bob Evans and uh oh,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: I really like Baron Spreckel, the hen These names are fantastic. Yeah.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: And just speaking of fantastic names, the President's son Archie
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: was so fond of Algonquin that his brothers Kermit and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Quentin would bring the pony to his room through the
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: elevator in the in the White House. But Algonquin, apparently
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: according to the National Park Services, was so captivated hypnotized
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: even by his own reflection in the elevator mirror, that
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: it was really harn't print to get out. Algonquin is
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: very into himself, wasn't Teddy Roosevelt kind of like yeah,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: like like a naturalist and environmental outdoors, you know, which
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: really holds true. There's even a story from the National Parks.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: It was again where his son Quentin burst into an
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: important meeting the President was holding in the Oval office
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: to show him four snakes that he had just gotten
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: from a pet store. Uh And of course immediately all
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: of the dignitaries in the room just registered annoyance with
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: this precocious young lad. But when he plopped the snakes
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: down to the table, they all, um, you know, like
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: getting up on your chair and squealing when you see
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: a mouse or something that they definitely retreated. One thing
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: we should mention though about Roosevelt is much more than
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: just a casual environmentalist. He used his authority constantly protect wildlife.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: He created the United States Forest Service, which established a
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty national forest, bird reserves, game reserves, national parks,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: national monuments, and so on. Is he the one that
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: carried the big stick as a rough writer, Yes, yeah, yeah,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: he rolled with d m x's crew. Yes, it's uh,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: it's true. It's uh. You know you and I like
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: to include a couple of absolutely true, incredibly not researched facts,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: and one of them is that h. D m X
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: and Uh Teddy Roosevelt communicated across time and space. They
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: came up together. They came up together, but they were
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: no uh, there were no Woodrow Wilson because in a
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: way he had a huge collection of pets, but they
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: were all the same. Yeah. Woodrow Wilson was seemingly a
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: pretty generous president. He sacrificed some of the comforts, maybe
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: even of other presidents to kind of give back to
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the war effort. He had more of an ascetic life
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: than some president exactly. And and part of this was,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I guess partially to save on costs. Um. He had
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: a flock of sheep that he kept on the White
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: House lawn forty eight to be exact, um and that
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: their main purpose was to cut the grass, and they
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: were shared regularly and raised fifty two thousand dollars for
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the Red Cross during an auction of that wool. And
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: it was really important to Woodrow Wilson and his wife
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: to set a good example, you know, for American families
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: in the show that you had to chip in to
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: help out with the war effort. And I think that's
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: pretty interesting. I think that's also commendable. It reminds me of,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: you know, some of the other efforts we've seen by
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: administrations of the family members to encourage better nutrition, right
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: or to give to charities and in wartime. One interesting
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: fact about the United Kingdom in wartime, the Queen when
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: she got married had to use the same like ration
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: stamps to to buy the materials for address as everybody else.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: And I think it's I think it speaks very highly
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: to the character. And also I was not familiar with
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: the idea of using livestock to mow the lawn. But
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: it makes sense. And you told me about talking about
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: that with Scott, right with my buddy Scott Benjamin. It's
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: a true story. Here in Atlanta, you can actually rent
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: goats for the purpose of lawn maintenance. And I'd like
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: to know if you have an experience renting goats for
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: lawn maintenance reasons or other reasons in your neck of
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: the Global woods. Uh, and you know, do you have goats?
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Do you want to rent us one? We'll just hang
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: out with it in the office. Or sheep, but not
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: forty eight. We don't have room forty eight. Goats are
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: apparently pretty cantankerous. Yeah, yeah, they're definitely um dynamic personalities.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Sheep might be a little more sedate. But horses, ponies, right,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: stallions of all shapes and sizes. We often forget in
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: seventeen that there was a time when the primary transport
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: of the United States was going to be on foot
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: or by horse, right on foot or on hoof or
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: wheels old by hoofs. The White House, once upon a
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: time had a stable large enough for twenty horses and
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: a living area for the staff. The stable staff, right, yeah,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: and and and speaking of pitching in apparently the stables
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: caught on fire at Anti sixty four and Abraham Lincoln
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: himself hoped too and tried to help put out the blaze. Um.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: And for whatever reason in the early nineteen hundreds, the
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: stables were dismantled and Zachary Taylor actually, um, which I
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: believe he had one of the shortest presidential terms. Um,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: it was sixteen months. I believe he died unexpectedly as
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: a twelfth president. But he he uh, he had himself
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: a war horse ben by the name of Old Whitey.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: That's appropriate name for presidential horse. I wonder if it
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: started out with a different name, or you know, you
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: gotta wonder how the horse felt when it was juvenile
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: to behaved old white old Whitey, Yeah, Old Whitey. Yeah.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Zachary Taylor had Old Whitey, old white who was, as
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Null said in a war horse, which means a horse
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: specifically trained to function in battle and becombat ready, not
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: be distracted or as easily shook by loud noises like
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: cannon fire and such. Old Whitey and the phantom alley gators.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: That's the that's the children's book. But that's that's so
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: much potential a lot of legs. Um, but by far
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: to me, the cutest presidential pony belonged to John F.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Kennedy's daughter Caroline, and it was named Macaroni. You know,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: like Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a bone.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Do you know the etymology that this kind of side note?
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: So macaroni, at least in mid eighteenth century England was
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: a description of a fashionable due like almost a hipster
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: type who dressed a little bit foppishly and uh had
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: outlandishly flamboyant speech and affectations like a Liberacei type. You know,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's active. He had those like lace
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: frilly lace things on his wrists and his collars and um,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: sort of like a French duke. Yeah. And there we go.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: And it came about because young men of means, of
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: course traveled to Italy and they developed a taste for
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: macaroni the pasta, and it wasn't very famous in England then,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: So then when they came back they were said to
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: belong to the macaroni club. Here's an example I'm showing
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: you with the big way total French duke. Yeah, and
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: so it uh and so when they stick a feather
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: in their cap and call it macaroni. It's like, oh, look,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I have a feather in my cap. Now I'm one
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: of these hip people, which is so weird because for
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the longest time that song made no sense to me.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: I I just thought it was like absurdest kind of
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: you know. And yeah, I have derailed as so not
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: at all. We learned about all kinds of silly stuff
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: on this show and then I love it. I object
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: to the next pet on this list. I'm just gonna
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: say it categorically. I'm not a fan of these animals.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Possums not my favorite. Now. I don't like their beady
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: little pink eyes and the way they glow in the dark,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: and they have so many teeth, and they have a
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: rat tail and that irritating silent Oh at the beginning
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: of their names, what's that about? Some people pronounce it,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: some people don't pronounce it. It's just bedlam. There's no
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: rhyme or reason to pronouncing the name of this rodent. So, yes,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: possums a divisive more supial, if ever there was such, yes,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and and and thank you for correcting that, Ben. It
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: is a marsupial, not a Rodent. I still think it
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: has a rat tail anyway. So Benjamin Harrison, uh go,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Ben's in general, people named Ben twenty three, president from
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty nine to eight three loved animals. This guy,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: and while he was in office, he had not one
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: but two pet possums. One was named Mr Protection and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the other was Mr Reciprocity, which sounds like he's got
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: this whole thing going on. Yeah, it's it's weird. He
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: doesn't sound like the most fun guy, doesn't U. So
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the thing is interesting is that the Harrison family loved
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Mr Protection, Mr Reciprocity, and apparently they were good h
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: what we would call optics nowadays for the American public, Like,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: he can't be all that bad. Look at his possums,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: look at his trash rats. Yes, sorry to any possum
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: fans out there, but they give me the ski v gvs.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: They're quite common where we live, they really are. You'll
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: see him scampering across the top of a fence night
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: going to Applebee's, stinking up the joint. But yes, out
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: of out of all the strange presidential pets, those are
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: the only ones that I'm kind of on the fence
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: about and This opened up a strange culture that I
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: was unaware of. I don't know if you knew as
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: if you will a possum hole, if you will, yes,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: let's let's assume that we do, and let's hope you
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: do as well. It turns out that lots of world
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: leaders have had lots of weird pets. Benito Mussolini had
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: a lion, sure, and we talked about Pablo Escar and
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: his hippos right the girafts and other assorted exotic, large,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: unwieldy beasts. I believe it was North Korean dictator Kim
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Jong il, not his son Kim Jong Yeah, it was.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Kim Jong Il had the huge love of dogs, and
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: later on his son opened a dog zoo pavilion. So
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: it's a zoo, but just dogs. You know, it would
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: be a good rap name. What's that Kim Jong ill?
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: With two else? Two else? How is that not a thing? Yet?
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: That's a great idea. Probably is, that's a great idea. Uh.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Fidel Castro had a cow named Ubrey Blanca and idio
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, did have crocodiles for real, but he fed
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: them corpses of his enemies. Let's that's a functional pet
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: right there. Yeah, it's like those giant pigs in that
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: silence of the Lamb's movie Hannibal or whatever then neath
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: the bodies, Yeah, or in Deadwood to Woo Woo and
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: his pigs. You know, I mean that that animal had
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: a job that was They're just like it wasn't just
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: a charming thing like Rebecca the Raccoon exactly. But what
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: about the what about the other non exotic pet snel. Yeah,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: it seems as the time progressed, presidential pets have gotten
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: progressively more vanilla. The most popular and recognizable presidential buddy
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: is is the the dog, the loyal friend of man
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: and woman. Yeah, I mean dogs and people. We go,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: we go way back, and there's pretty compelling evidence that
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: humans have impacted the evolution of dogs. Yeah. Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: who was the thirty second president from ninety three to nineteen,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: had a pretty famous um companion by the name of Fala,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: was a Scottish terrier and that famously attended his funeral.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Um is now remembered at the FDR Museum in Washington.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Oh Man, that's sad. Yeah, you know what it makes
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: me think of a Pixar movie. Well, a Disney property
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: for sure, though. Um, you know, Carrie Fisher famously played
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Princess Leiah and and did a great job in her
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: last role in the Last Jedi, which I really enjoyed
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: quite a lot. Um, she had a loving dog that
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: she took with her everywhere. Whenever she was on the
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: press circuit, she always had this little dog. And apparently, uh,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the dog attended a premiere or whenever it sees her
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: on TV, it kind of gets gets bummed out. And
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I think the dog actually had a cameo in the
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: Last Jedi. Really well, that's that's amazing. That's a that's
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: a more heartwarming note there, I think so too. Moving
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: on back to presidents, we have Warren G. Harding, President
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: number twenty nine nine. Um, his dog's name was Laddie Boy,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: and he gifted Laddie Boy a hand carved chair to
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: sit alongside him during meetings. It's good to be king,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: you know. And when it comes to the type of
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: animals that are present in the White House, by far
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: As Well said they're going to be dogs. But I'm
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: I'm amazed with these names, you know, like just Goat
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: named old Whiskers. Taft had a cow named Pauline, last
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: cow to live at the White House so far, and
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: it seems that almost well, it seems that the vast
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: majority of presidents at least had a dog, doesn't it.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: It does seem that way. And there's a great quote
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: that kind of sums all this up from Evan Piffer
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: from the White House Historical Association. UM, that sort of
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: gets to the heart of this with why this is
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: such a thing except for with our current president. Um,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: pets humanize the White House and the presidency. Just like
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: so many Americans have pets, so do the presidents. It's
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: a link between the life of a president and the
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: life of millions of Americans. And I think that is
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: spot on and that is a good time for us
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: to end today because this is making me miss my
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: pets a little bit, you know, I want to go
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: take them out and hang out with him in a
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: going wall and adventures. It reminds me. Also, folks, we'd
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: like to hear about what kind of exotic animal you
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: would keep as a pet no holds barred, you know,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: if this is a wishes or horses type situation where
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the animal would have all the you know, all the
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: freedom to move around that it wanted to, and it
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be stuck in any position or cruelty. But if
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: you could like be friends with any any exotic animal,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: what would it be. Why? I would want a baby
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: hippopotamus that just stayed a baby forever. See, I would
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: want a tiger or a bear that that could talk
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: to me, and uh, you know, we would hang out
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: and we would go I don't know, we would go
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: adventuring skiing. Maybe, yeah, we get some tiger trail walking
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: bear skis. We probably start with just trail walking. Yeah,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: we'll have to ease into like laser tag and stuff.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: You go. That sounds like a friendship for the ages. Ben.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Thanks Van, and we want to hear your thoughts. As
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: you can tell, we're very much fans of presidential trivia
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: and I think the quote by Evan there nailed it
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the motivation for these strange and unusual pets. Uh. We
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: very much hope you enjoyed this episode and we hope
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: that you will check us out, send us a review
• 30:19
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• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Nolan I on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Twitter's the other
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: one that's the one. It's popular. It doesn't know how
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: to make money. Apparently it's true. But if you don't
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: want to do any of that stuff, why not just
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: send us a good old fashioned email too Ridiculous at
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com. And and most importantly, I
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: hope you're having a happy New Year. I feel like
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: we missed the boat on saying that Happy New Year everyone. Yeah,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: And I just want to mention to um. This show
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: is produced and edited by Casey Pegram and our theme
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: music is composed by the lovely Alex williams Um and
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: we record here in our studios at Pont City Market
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia. And we also want to thank our
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: fellow researcher, John Donovan, who wrote the article on the
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: history of Strange Animals in the White House for How
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Stuff Works. And most importantly, we want to thank you
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: for listening and hope that you'll join us next time
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: for another episode of Ridiculous History.