WHAT? NO "BEAST OF BUFFALO"? :

What's in a president's name? (Richard Lederer, May 9, 2002, Jewish World Review)

Martin Van Buren, elected our eighth president in 1836, was born in Kinderhook, N.Y., and, early in his political career, was dubbed "Old Kinderhook."

Echoing the "Oll Korrect" initialism, O.K. became the rallying cry of the Old Kinderhook Club, a political organization supporting Van Buren during the 1840 campaign.

The coinage did Van Buren no good, and he was defeated in his bid for re-election.

But the word honoring his name today remains what H. L. Mencken identified as "the most shining and successful Americanism ever invented."

Match the presidential nicknames in the left-hand column with the presidents in the second column:

1. The Great Emancipator
2. Old Hickory
3. The Father of His Country
4. The Sage of Monticello
5. Ike
6. Tricky Dick
7. Silent Cal
8. Tippecanoe
9. Unconditional Surrender
10. Old Rough and Ready
11. The Gipper
12. The New Dealer
13. The Schoolmaster
14. The Rough Rider
15. Big Bill
16. The Bachelor President
17. The Haberdasher

a. James Buchanan
b. Calvin Coolidge
c. Dwight David Eisenhower
d. Ulysses S. Grant
e. William Henry Harrison
f. Andrew Jackson
g. Thomas Jefferson
h. Abraham Lincoln
i. Richard M. Nixon
j. Ronald Reagan
k. Franklin D. Roosevelt
l. Teddy Roosevelt
m. William Howard Taft
n. Zachary Taylor
o. Harry S. Truman
p. George Washington
q. Woodrow Wilson

And I believe that George W. Bush may be the first to be known by a single letter : "W", though one supposes John Quincy Adams might have been called "Q" for the same reason.

NB--Follow the link for the answers.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 9, 2002 6:50 AM