This informative post will be published on Saturday in place of my regular one.  You are invited to participate with the opening question.

Brain Teaser Question

What word in the English language has three consecutive double letters?

(answer found at the end of this post)

Featured Facts

A native of Ohio,  Warren G. Harding becomes the 29th President of the United States.  He remains the final one of eight Presidents with roots in the Buckeye state.

Here are a few interesting facts about President Harding:

• Political Party:  Republican
• Birth:  November 2, 1865 in Blooming Grove, Ohio
• Death:  August 2, 1923 in San Francisco, California

Harding’s career before entering politics centers around his partnership in The Marion Star newspaper, which is purchased when he is 19 years of age.  Marion, Ohio remains his adult home for the rest of his life. 

His political career begins with being elected to the Ohio Senate.  He later serves as Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor, but loses in his bid to become the state’s Governor.  He is elected United States Senator from Ohio in 1914.

With the Presidential Election of 1920 arriving, Harding is nominated as a compromise candidate for the Republican Party.  Ironically, the Democratic candidate is James M. Cox, the current Governor of Ohio.  His running mate will be Franklin D. Roosevelt, who later becomes the only American President to serve more than two terms in office.  

Following the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, this election is the first for American women to vote in.  Harding conducts a campaign primarily from the front porch of his Marion home.  Thousands of people travel to hear him speak, and the relentless traffic wears out the home’s front lawn (later replaced with gravel).  

Harding’s campaign plans revolve around promising a “return to normalcy” following the victory and aftermath of the Great War (later renamed World War I).  He favors pro-business reforms along with limited immigration.  The election produces a landslide victory for Harding and the Republican Party, with a slightly better than 60 percent of the popular vote.  

Harding becomes the first President to speak on radio.  He later visits the territory of Alaska, which marks the first ever trip by any American President.  One of the landmark nominations of his Presidency is for Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He nominates fellow Ohioan and former President William Howard Taft.

Upon returning from his trip in Alaska, Harding becomes ill.  He dies in San Francisco from an apparent heart attack.  Vice President Calvin Coolidge takes over the reins of the Presidency.

Following Harding’s death, much more light comes to the corruption that has been brewing within his administration.  The Teapot Dome scandal has already been in the news and brings substantial embarrassment to President Harding.  His Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, and others have been selling government-owned oil leases in Wyoming for political favors.  Fall and his cronies will be found guilty and serve prison time.  

All of these findings bring darkness to Harding’s abbreviated term of office, even though he escapes any hand in the wrongdoings.  However, his reputation as President remains forever damaged.  Some of his critics now nickname him “President Hardly.”

top left and moving clockwise:  portrait of president harding, campaign poster from 1920, harding pictured working for his newspaper in marion, harding in his pre-presidency days, pictured with vice president calvin coolidge, harding’s memorial and tomb in marion, harding home in marion.  (Courtesy of Pinterest)

Answer to Brain Teaser Question

Bookkeeper (also bookkeeping)