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Cast Review& Awards Game Trivia Quiz Activites & LinksThe Private Life of George "Dubya" Bush
by Niki Kapsambeliscourtesy of Harcourt, Inc.
Did you realize that many American presidents were also star athletes? Take Gerald Ford, who played football for Michigan and was offered two pro contracts. Or Ronald Reagan, who served as a lifeguard, or George Bush, who played first base on Yale's baseball team.
But when president-elect George W. Bush takes office, it will be not as a former star athlete, but as the former head cheerleader at his Massachusetts prep school. He'll also be the first son of a president to assume office since John Quincy Adams.
There seems to be no end to the public's curiosity about the little details that make up the lives of celebrities, and presidents are no exception. Did you know that John F. Kennedy took numerous showers a day, completely changing clothes each time? Or that Thomas Jefferson liked to let his pet mockingbirds eat from his mouth?
Such is the stuff of which great Trivial Pursuit players are made. In Lives of the Presidents: Fame, Shame (and What the Neighbors Thought), author Kathleen Krull tells us which president liked to hug the most (Clinton), who nearly suffocated at the riot that broke out during his inaugural party (Jackson), and who gambled away White House china (Harding).
So what might a future chapter on George W. Bush say?
The 2000 presidential election was one of the closest in history, thanks to weeks of legal battles over the vote count in Florida. But that was enough to put the man known as "Tweeds Bush" and "Bombastic Bushkin" into the Oval Office.
Those who know him describe Bush as easygoing and likable. He married the serious-minded Laura Welch, a teacher and librarian from Midland, Texas. Together they had twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, named for their two grandmothers.
You probably already know that Bush endured an arduous battle for the White House. But did you also know that there were some who said Bush would rather have been baseball commissioner? The game runs deep through his veins; his father was a star at Yale, his great-uncle was a part owner of the New York Mets, and in 1989 George W. himself bought the Texas Rangers. His baseball hero is Willie Mays; his favorite movie is Field of Dreams.
He was the class cut-up in fourth grade when he did his pint-sized Elvis impersonation; though the King was a favorite of his White House predecessor, Bill Clinton, Bush prefers country music.
When he takes office, the First Dog, an English Springer Spaniel named Spot, will also be the son of a previous White House occupant: Millie, the dog made famous for "writing" a book (co-authored by Bush's mother, then-First Lady Barbara Bush).
Like his father before him, George W. has provided plenty of material for late-night comedians who love to lampoon the way he sometimes stumbles over words or phrases, a trait he often plays for laughs. During the second presidential debate, he joked, "I've been known to mangle a syl-LAB-ble or two myself, you know, if you know what I mean."
Lives of the Presidents is part of a six-book series. Other books in the Lives Of series include:
Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought)Lives of the Athletes: Thrills, Spills (and What the Neighbors Thought)
Lives of the Artists: Masterpieces, Messes (and What the Neighbors Thought)
Lives of the Writers: Comedies, Tragedies (and What the Neighbors Thought)
Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought)
Copyright Harcourt, Inc.
