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