Showing posts with label George Washington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Washington. Show all posts
Monday, February 21, 2011
Monday, February 16, 2009
President's Day -- Poppa George and Lanky Link: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln built the (now demonized) Republican Party into a strong national organization and brought the northern Democrats into the Union fold. With little choice, he went to war against his own countrymen.
In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves in the Confederacy. In reality, that would take a while, and many people think we're still working at it. He made a few jokes about his face, and truth be told, in many of those daguerreotypes he looks like he is carrying the weight of the world.
The contemporary painter Mark Ryden often includes an image of Lincoln in his paintings. Abe never got to fully preside over the peace, because he was assassinated on April 14, 1865, by a deranged actor and supreme P.O.S., John Wilkes Boothe.
More nonsense has been written about Washington than any other President (except the conspiracy theories around Jack Kennedy and LBJ, about whom more even gibberish has been written because his murder, and LBJ's alleged role in the "conspiracy" literally sparked an industry of conspiracy theorists.
Did young George chop down the cherry tree? Was he lying when he said "Father, I cannot tell a lie," which may be the biggest whopper of all time? "Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut the tree," George says when asked by his father. This story elevated him into the pantheon and onto Rushmore. It is also bunk, bogus, hokum, flim-flam::::::::::100% ca-ca. Parson Mason Locke Weems concocted the story in a biography of Washington. In The Moral Washington: Construction of a Legend Weems wanted to humanize Washington after a less than flattering earlier biography of him as 'cold and colorless." Weems book was very popular with the public and they equated Washington with honesty.
Did he wear wooden teeth? No. He actually had hippopotamus teeth--from rarely visited Africa. How they became his teeth is a mystery.
His tight-lipped grimace is often attributed to the wooden teeth. We do know that his false teeth has springs that made them adhere in place, but that is not the reason for the tight-lipped grin.
The raconteur, humorist, and radio legend Jean Shepherd talked about Washington on his Washington birthday show on February 22, 1973. Shep tried to bust a few of the myths around The General. In particular, some of the notions that have arisen from Gilbert Stuart's portraits.
We remember President Washington as tight lipped and aloof because as Gilbert Stuart wrote "When I painted him, he had just had a set of false teeth inserted, which accounts for the constrained expression so noticeable about the mouth and lower part of the face." However, we now know that Stuart disliked George Washington and many people speculate this led to the tight lipped portrait, as well as the air of aloofness we sense in Washington. Stuart also wrote that when he would sit for him: "an apathy seemed to seize him, and a vacuity spread over his countenance, most appalling to paint."
Thanks to the portraits, we also think of him as a dandified man, wearing flouncy shirts, an ornate doublet and knickers. We think of his hair as being bright white. As was the fashion at the time, that was a powdered wig!
We tend to also think of him as a genteel and gentle man of restraint (again, partly due to the portraits). However, he was a man of large appetites who enjoyed copious flagons of Madeira wine (and would have no doubt enoyed bourbon, had it been invented yet). He was not afraid to take a another officer out for a round of fisticuffs, and usually won. Martha Washington indicated in more than one letter to friends that "George is at it again," which some have speculated refers to extramarital affairs.
George was a big man. In that time, the average height of a Continental Army soldier was five foot six inches. George Washington stood six foot, two inches. He was literally a giant among men.
Washington was also an incredible horseman, by all accounts, both in peace- and in war-time. He was a strong man, and tough as nails, as he showed in the war, living under-equipped in the appalling climate of Valley Forge and the other battles of the revolution.
Washington State is the only state named for a President. When I grew up in the 50's and 60's, Washington's birthday was still a state holiday (before that abomination known as President's Day). On February 22, in celebration of the event, cherry pies were on sale in the stores and at bake sales by the Rotary, the Civitan Club, Kiwanis, and others.
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Thursday, October 09, 2008
Paintings of The Presidents, in order, leading up to the election in 26 days: John Adams and George Washington
In honor of the Presidential race, about which there is virtually nothing to actually honor, we are reprinting Jack's portraits of the Presidents over the next 26 days up to the election. Here are POTUS 1 and 2, George Washington and John Adams.
More nonsense has been written about Washington than any other President (except the conspiracy theories around Jack Kennedy and LBJ, about whom more even gibberish has been written because his murder, and LBJ's alleged role in the "conspiracy" literally sparked an industry of conspiracy theorists.
Did young George chop down the cherry tree? Was he lying when he said "Father, I cannot tell a lie," which may be the biggest whopper of all time? "Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut the tree," George says when asked by his father. This story elevated him into the pantheon and onto Rushmore. It is also bunk, bogus, hokum, flim-flam::::::::::100% ca-ca. Parson Mason Locke Weems concocted the story in a biography of Washington. In The Moral Washington: Construction of a Legend Weems wanted to humanize Washington after a less than flattering earlier biography of him as 'cold and colorless." Weems book was very popular with the public and they equated Washington with honesty.
Did he wear wooden teeth? No. He actually had hippopotamus teeth--from rarely visited Africa. How they became his teeth is a mystery.
His tight-lipped grimace is often attributed to the wooden teeth. We do know that his false teeth has springs that made them adhere in place, but that is not the reason for the tight-lipped grin.
The raconteur, humorist, and radio legend Jean Shepherd talked about Washington on his Washington birthday show on February 22, 1973. Shep tried to bust a few of the myths around The General. In particular, some of the notions that have arisen from Gilbert Stuart's portraits.
We remember President Washington as tight lipped and aloof because as Gilbert Stuart wrote "When I painted him, he had just had a set of false teeth inserted, which accounts for the constrained expression so noticeable about the mouth and lower part of the face." However, we now know that Stuart disliked George Washington and many people speculate this led to the tight lipped portrait, as well as the air of aloofness we sense in Washington. Stuart also wrote that when he would sit for him: "an apathy seemed to seize him, and a vacuity spread over his countenance, most appalling to paint."
Thanks to the portraits, we also think of him as a dandified man, wearing flouncy shirts, an ornate doublet and knickers. We think of his hair as being bright white. As was the fashion at the time, that was a powdered wig!
We tend to also think of him as a genteel and gentle man of restraint (again, partly due to the portraits). However, he was a man of large appetites who enjoyed copious flagons of Madeira wine (and would have no doubt enoyed bourbon, had it been invented yet). He was not afraid to take a another officer out for a round of fisticuffs, and usually won. Martha Washington indicated in more than one letter to friends that "George is at it again," which some have speculated refers to extramarital affairs.
George was a big man. In that time, the average height of a Continental Army soldier was five foot six inches. George Washington stood six foot, two inches. He was literally a giant among men.
Washington was also an incredible horseman, by all accounts, both in peace- and in war-time. He was a strong man, and tough as nails, as he showed in the war, living under-equipped in the appalling climate of Valley Forge and the other battles of the revolution.
Washington State is the only state named for a President. When I grew up in the 50's and 60's, Washington's birthday was still a state holiday (before that abomination known as President's Day). On February 22, in celebration of the event, cherry pies were on sale in the stores and at bake sales by the Rotary, the Civitan Club, Kiwanis, and others.
_______________________________
And now we come to John Adams, the only President defeated for re-election by his own Vice-President.
John Adams was our first Vice President, and second President. He was in the Federalist Party, and was a mover and shaker in the formation--and formulation--of our government. He worked on the Declaration of Independence; the actual drafting was assigned to Thomas Jefferson. When President Washington refused a third term, Adams ran to succeed him and beat Thomas Jefferson.
Adams's years as president (1797–1801) were marked by intrigues and public relations disasters that embittered him the rest of his life.
Passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts helped discredit the Federalist party. Four laws were passed. Most would be found unconstitutional. The Alien Act made it possible for the President to deport any alien he judged to be dangerous. The Alien Enemies Act gave the President more power during times of war--allowing him to "remove" or deport any foreigner that hadn't been naturalized. These acts were aimed at garnering the support of immigrants , who were supporting the Republican Party.
The party devolved into backbiting factions. Adams and Hamilton sharply split, and members of Adams's own cabinet looked to Hamilton--rather than The President--as their political Rabbi. Adams was drawn into the European vortex (the XYZ Affair), and instead of taking advantage of the militantcy it aroused amongst the proletariat here, devoted himself to securing the peace with France. That cost him the whole tamale.
In 1800, Adams ran again as a Federalist candidate. Distrust of him in his own party, public dislike of the Alien and Sedition Acts, and Thomas Jefferson's popularity led him to defeat. He was the first and only President to be defeated by his Vice-President. He retired.
Twenty-five years later--On the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence--John Adams died at Quincy, after uttering his famous last words: "Thomas Jefferson still survives." He didn't know it, but Thomas Jefferson (Potus 3) had died a few hours earlier. You nmay have seen this scene re-eneacted in the recently televised bio-pic of Adams on Public Television.
---o0o---
More nonsense has been written about Washington than any other President (except the conspiracy theories around Jack Kennedy and LBJ, about whom more even gibberish has been written because his murder, and LBJ's alleged role in the "conspiracy" literally sparked an industry of conspiracy theorists.
Did young George chop down the cherry tree? Was he lying when he said "Father, I cannot tell a lie," which may be the biggest whopper of all time? "Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut the tree," George says when asked by his father. This story elevated him into the pantheon and onto Rushmore. It is also bunk, bogus, hokum, flim-flam::::::::::100% ca-ca. Parson Mason Locke Weems concocted the story in a biography of Washington. In The Moral Washington: Construction of a Legend Weems wanted to humanize Washington after a less than flattering earlier biography of him as 'cold and colorless." Weems book was very popular with the public and they equated Washington with honesty.
Did he wear wooden teeth? No. He actually had hippopotamus teeth--from rarely visited Africa. How they became his teeth is a mystery.
His tight-lipped grimace is often attributed to the wooden teeth. We do know that his false teeth has springs that made them adhere in place, but that is not the reason for the tight-lipped grin.
The raconteur, humorist, and radio legend Jean Shepherd talked about Washington on his Washington birthday show on February 22, 1973. Shep tried to bust a few of the myths around The General. In particular, some of the notions that have arisen from Gilbert Stuart's portraits.
We remember President Washington as tight lipped and aloof because as Gilbert Stuart wrote "When I painted him, he had just had a set of false teeth inserted, which accounts for the constrained expression so noticeable about the mouth and lower part of the face." However, we now know that Stuart disliked George Washington and many people speculate this led to the tight lipped portrait, as well as the air of aloofness we sense in Washington. Stuart also wrote that when he would sit for him: "an apathy seemed to seize him, and a vacuity spread over his countenance, most appalling to paint."
Thanks to the portraits, we also think of him as a dandified man, wearing flouncy shirts, an ornate doublet and knickers. We think of his hair as being bright white. As was the fashion at the time, that was a powdered wig!
We tend to also think of him as a genteel and gentle man of restraint (again, partly due to the portraits). However, he was a man of large appetites who enjoyed copious flagons of Madeira wine (and would have no doubt enoyed bourbon, had it been invented yet). He was not afraid to take a another officer out for a round of fisticuffs, and usually won. Martha Washington indicated in more than one letter to friends that "George is at it again," which some have speculated refers to extramarital affairs.
George was a big man. In that time, the average height of a Continental Army soldier was five foot six inches. George Washington stood six foot, two inches. He was literally a giant among men.
Washington was also an incredible horseman, by all accounts, both in peace- and in war-time. He was a strong man, and tough as nails, as he showed in the war, living under-equipped in the appalling climate of Valley Forge and the other battles of the revolution.
Washington State is the only state named for a President. When I grew up in the 50's and 60's, Washington's birthday was still a state holiday (before that abomination known as President's Day). On February 22, in celebration of the event, cherry pies were on sale in the stores and at bake sales by the Rotary, the Civitan Club, Kiwanis, and others.
_______________________________
And now we come to John Adams, the only President defeated for re-election by his own Vice-President.
John Adams was our first Vice President, and second President. He was in the Federalist Party, and was a mover and shaker in the formation--and formulation--of our government. He worked on the Declaration of Independence; the actual drafting was assigned to Thomas Jefferson. When President Washington refused a third term, Adams ran to succeed him and beat Thomas Jefferson.
Adams's years as president (1797–1801) were marked by intrigues and public relations disasters that embittered him the rest of his life.
Passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts helped discredit the Federalist party. Four laws were passed. Most would be found unconstitutional. The Alien Act made it possible for the President to deport any alien he judged to be dangerous. The Alien Enemies Act gave the President more power during times of war--allowing him to "remove" or deport any foreigner that hadn't been naturalized. These acts were aimed at garnering the support of immigrants , who were supporting the Republican Party.
The party devolved into backbiting factions. Adams and Hamilton sharply split, and members of Adams's own cabinet looked to Hamilton--rather than The President--as their political Rabbi. Adams was drawn into the European vortex (the XYZ Affair), and instead of taking advantage of the militantcy it aroused amongst the proletariat here, devoted himself to securing the peace with France. That cost him the whole tamale.
In 1800, Adams ran again as a Federalist candidate. Distrust of him in his own party, public dislike of the Alien and Sedition Acts, and Thomas Jefferson's popularity led him to defeat. He was the first and only President to be defeated by his Vice-President. He retired.
Twenty-five years later--On the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence--John Adams died at Quincy, after uttering his famous last words: "Thomas Jefferson still survives." He didn't know it, but Thomas Jefferson (Potus 3) had died a few hours earlier. You nmay have seen this scene re-eneacted in the recently televised bio-pic of Adams on Public Television.
---o0o---
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Happy Birthday, Washington Monument!
In 1884, 123 years ago today, the Washington Monument was completed as workers placed a nine-
inch aluminum pyramid on the tower of white marble. The city's (and my state's) namesake, George Washington finally had a fitting monument. 100 years earlier, Congress decided a statue of the great Revolutionary War general should be placed near the site of the new Congressional building, wherever that ended up being. It wasn't until 1832, 33 years after Washington's death, that much really happened on the monument front. After holding a design competition and choosing an elaborate Greek temple-like design by architect Robert Mills, the society began fundraising money for the statue's construction. These efforts raised some less than a fourth of the the $1 million needed. Construction began anyway, and on July 4, 1848, they laid the cornerstone of the monument: a 24,500-pound block of pure white marble.
By 1854, with funds running low, construction was halted. Around the time the Civil War began in 1861, author Mark Twain described the unfinished monument as looking like a "hollow, oversized chimney." In 1876, President Grant ordered the construction to be completed.
another phallic monument,
known locally as "The Brick
Dick"in Ypsilanti, Michigan
At the time of its completion in December 1884, those 36,000 blocks of marble and granite stacked 555 feet in the air, were the tallest structure in the world. A city law passed in 1910 restricted the height of new buildings to ensure that the monument will remain the tallest structure in Washington, D.C.
---o0o---
inch aluminum pyramid on the tower of white marble. The city's (and my state's) namesake, George Washington finally had a fitting monument. 100 years earlier, Congress decided a statue of the great Revolutionary War general should be placed near the site of the new Congressional building, wherever that ended up being. It wasn't until 1832, 33 years after Washington's death, that much really happened on the monument front. After holding a design competition and choosing an elaborate Greek temple-like design by architect Robert Mills, the society began fundraising money for the statue's construction. These efforts raised some less than a fourth of the the $1 million needed. Construction began anyway, and on July 4, 1848, they laid the cornerstone of the monument: a 24,500-pound block of pure white marble.By 1854, with funds running low, construction was halted. Around the time the Civil War began in 1861, author Mark Twain described the unfinished monument as looking like a "hollow, oversized chimney." In 1876, President Grant ordered the construction to be completed.
another phallic monument,
known locally as "The Brick
Dick"in Ypsilanti, Michigan
At the time of its completion in December 1884, those 36,000 blocks of marble and granite stacked 555 feet in the air, were the tallest structure in the world. A city law passed in 1910 restricted the height of new buildings to ensure that the monument will remain the tallest structure in Washington, D.C.
---o0o---
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Friday, April 15, 2005
POTUS 1: The First President Of The United States, Pres. George Washington a/k/a The General a/k/a The Father Of Our Country
Click to enlarge
More nonsense has probably been written about Washington than any other President. Except Jack Kennedy, about whom even more gibberish has been written because his murder literally sparked an industry of conspiracy theorists.
Did young George chop down the cherry tree? Was he lying when he said "Father, I cannot tell a lie," which may be the biggest whopper of all time? "Father, I cannot tell a lie. I cut the tree," George says when asked by his father. This story elevated him into the pantheon and onto Rushmore. It is also bunk, bogus, hokum, flim-flam::::::::::100% ca-ca. Parson Mason Locke Weems concocted the story in a biography of Washington. In The Moral Washington: Construction of a Legend Weems wanted to humanize Washington after a less than flattering earlier biography of him as 'cold and colorless.' Weems book was very popular with the public and they equated Washington with honesty.
Did he wear wooden teeth? No. He had hippomus ivory teeth--from rarely visited Africa. How they became his teeth is a mystery.
His tight-lipped grimace is often attributed to the wooden teeth. We do know that his false teeth has springs that made them adhere in place, but that is not the reason for the tight-lipped grin. The raconteur, humorist, and radio legend Jean Shepherd talked about Washington on his Washington birthday show on February 22, 1973. Shep tried to bust a few of the myths around The General. In particular, some of the notions that have arisen from Gilbert Stuart's portraits.
We remember President Washington as tight lipped and aloof because as Gilbert Stuart wrote "When I painted him, he had just had a set of false teeth inserted, which accounts for the constrained expression so noticeable about the mouth and lower part of the face." However, we now know that Stuart disliked George Washington and many people speculate this led to the tight lipped portrait, as well as the air of aloofness we sense in Washington. Stuart also wrote that when he would sit for him: "an apathy seemed to seize him, and a vacuity spread over his countenance, most appalling to paint."
Thanks to the portraits, we also think of him as a dandified man, wearing flouncy shirts, an ornate doublet and knickers. We think of his hair as being bright white. As was the fashion at the time, that was a powdered wig!
We tend to also think of him as a genteel and gentle man of restraint (again, partly due to the portraits). However, he was a man of large appetites who enjoyed copious flagons of Madeira wine (and would have no doubt enoyed bourbon, had it been invented yet). He was not afraid to take a another officer out for a round of fisticuffs, and usually won. Martha Washington indicated in more than one letter to friends that "George is at it again," which some have speculated refers to extramarital affairs.
George was a big man. In that time, the average height of a Continental Army soldier was five foot six inches. George Washington stood six foot, two inches. He was literally a giant among men.
Washington was also an incredible horseman, by all accounts, both in peace- and in war-time. He was a strong man, and tough as nails, as he showed in the war, living under-equipped in the appalling climate of Valley Forge and the other battles of the revolution.
Washington State is the only state named for a President. When I grew up in the 50's and 60's, Washington's birthday was still a state holiday (before that abomination known as President's Day). On February 22, in celebration of the event, cherry pies were on sale in the stores and at bake sales by the Rotary, the Civitan Club, Kiwanis, and others.
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