Good morning everyone!
One of my favorite days of the year! I love this day. Even if I'm not enthusiastic about who's on the ballot, or my candidate doesn't win, it reminds me how fortunate I am to live in a country where I have the right to choose.
I walked Cleo this morning and the polling location in my precinct had a line around the corner, well over an hour long! Fortunately I live close enough to work that I can get out around lunchtime to vote. Hopefully it'll be shorter by then.
On that note.... here's some useless trivia to entertain you today.
Until Ulysses S. Grant, only three American Presidents had middle names. After US Grant, only three presidents were elected who did not have middle names, and three presidents preferred their middle name (John Calvin Coolidge, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, and Stephen Grover Cleveland). Grant, of course, did not have a middle name but just an initial (S stood for Simpson, his mother's maiden name, but was officially listed as just "S" on his birth certificate).
If John McCain is elected president, he and Jimmy Carter will have been the only graduates of the US Naval Academy to have been elected to the White House. Eisenhower and Grant were the only two POTUS to have graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point. Jefferson Davis, president of the CSA during the Civil War also graduated from West Point.
Only one US President was arrested while in office: US Grant, for speeding in his horse and buggy on Washington, DC streets. Franklin Pierce ran over a woman in his carriage but was not charged with any crime.
William H. Taft lost 80 pounds in the year after he left office.
Without the benefit of Sweating to the Oldies or NutriSystem.
Martin van Buren is the only president to grow up speaking a language other than English (his native language was Dutch).
Chester Arthur kept 80 pair of pants in his White House wardrobe, and often changed them several times a day so as to always appear with a good crease.
Gerald Ford is the only president to have tackled a Heisman Trophy winner (Jay Berwanger from the Univ of Chicago).
George H. W. Bush was the youngest Navy aviator in history, flying at age 18.
No US President has ever run a marathon. Al Gore is the only Vice- President to have completed one. He was beaten by Oprah Winfrey.
John Kerry is the only major party nominee to have completed a bike race of at least 100 miles.
Millard Fillmore was offered an honorary degree from Oxford, but turned it down, saying that he could not read Latin and that "no man should accept a degree he cannot read."
Abraham Lincoln was most likely the fifth president who was born in a log cabin.
George Washington's recipe for beer can be found here:
http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/washingtonrecipe.shtml
(However, I'm turning into a wimp ... I'm always cold ... even here in PA and that's a good bit less cold than you guys up in VT and upstate NY.) 
lol
Maryland does not have early voting, so did I time it just right or maybe folks around here aren't voting. 
