The 26th U.S. President

 

Theodore Roosevelt

Born: October 27, 1858

Died: January 6, 1919

Term in Office: 1901-1909

 

The little Springer Spaniel, the subject of a previous post, and I had a nice, moderately challenging hike at the Fort Ord National Monument. On our way home, I stopped at the store and picked up a roasted chicken. Nice hike; soon to be topped off with a nice lunch.

Or so I thought.

I had opened the bag of chicken on the kitchen island and torn off a leg/thigh piece. I was holding it in one hand as I reached for a plate from the cupboard with the other hand.

That little Springer is not as dumb a dog as I am a human being. She saw an opening and took it, along with the thigh portion of my anticipated lunch, running through her doggie door into the backyard, ahead of a flurry of heated expletives emanating from yours truly.

She has been locked out of the house, exiled to the back yard. I have removed myself from the premises and am cooling down at McDonald's with one of their dollar cups of coffee while I write this.

And that's the lead-in to this post's President, Teddy "Speak softly/big stick" Roosevelt. "Bully-bully" and all that.

After coming out west from his native New York, in part to buck up his health from his sickly youth, this guy became a larger-than-life figure, being filmed chopping down trees, leading the Rough Riders up Cuba's San Juan Hill, taking a would-be assassin's bullet before delivering a lengthy speech, and rafting down an uncharted South American river post-presidency (a poorly-planned adventure that nearly cost him and his son their lives. (A good read that documents this trip is The River of Doubt by Candice Millard. Look for it in your library or at your independent book store of choice.)

Interest in TR may grow in the coming months, with Martin Scorcese directing both a TV miniseries and a Leonardo DiCaprio-starring feature film, due out in the summer of 2023.

A few bits of trivia on the man:

-Though John F. Kennedy, at 43, was the youngest person elected to the presidency, Teddy was the youngest man to serve as President, succeeding the assassinated William McKinley shortly before his 43rd birthday.

-It's pretty much common knowledge that the stuffed "Teddy" bear was named for TR. Personal side note here: my father, born in 1911, had one of the first of these. I don't know where it ended up. It was pretty threadbare and hairless when I last saw it.

-He won the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. It was a conflict in which Japan forced Russia to quit its Asian expansion policy (www.britannica.com/event/russo-japanese-war). Hmm... Those crazy Russians, huh? Always heading in directions they're not wanted. (Devil's advocate note: kind of like 19th century United States, right?)

-Though he was a noted conservationist, establishing national parks and monuments and their associated park services, he dearly loved shooting all manner of animals.

Peace to all, and watch out for those big sticks.