If you recollect today ’s U.S.president is rather idiosyncratic , take warmness . A lot of the past tense U.S.presidentshave had mess of uncanny habits as well , say Will Pearson and Mangesh ( Mango ) Hattikudur in apast episode of Part - Time Genius .
In the episode " Who ’s Our Weirdest President ? " Will and Mango look at several nominee for the title . Martin Van Buren ( No . 8) , for example , reckon he could cure his continuing tum pain by downing a motley of soot , charcoal and water . Calvin Coolidge ( No . 30 ) had an even unknown health remedy . " Apparently he enjoyed having crude jelly scratch all over his head every morning , while he enjoyed his breakfast in bottom , " sound out Mango . " I do n’t hump exactly why he thought this was a good idea for his health , but he did . "
When White House physician Admiral Joel T. Boone decide Herbert Hoover ( No . 31 ) needed to lose exercising weight and become fitter , Boone created a game call " Hoover - ball . " A compounding of tennis , volleyball game and practice of medicine chunk , the biz was plan for two teams of two to four players . Six days a workweek , Hoover and four to 18 high muckamuck would act the game early in the forenoon . Hoover only cancelled once after the game was formulate , when he had to indite a speech to Congress .
John Quincy Adams(No . 6 ) was fond of scraggy dipping at 5 a.m. as a means of relieving stress . And he did n’t keep this practice a arcanum . That purportedly go to an incident astonishing by today ’s standards . " Journalist Anne Royall reportedly landed a big interview with John Quincy Adams by shroud his clothes after he get in the water , " says Will . " She then refused to give them back until he answer her questions , which of line he did . "
Under the category of superstitions , many people may recall Nancy Reagan ’s preference for star divination . Both Ronald Reagan ( No . 40 ) and his wife , Nancy , were worshiper . After Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1981 , the two leaned more heavy on the praxis . So hard , in fact , that Reagan ’s entire schedule was planned consort to his astrology charts , including the take - off and landing times of Air Force One , the presidential airplane .
But that may seem like nothing when you memorize that Jimmy Carter ( No . 39 ) spotted a UFO . In 1969 , while attending a Lion ’s Club function in Georgia , Carter and some buddies saw a foreign , shining object in the sky . The physical object was so unusual , the group report the sighting to the International UFO Bureau .
Podcast client Cormac O’Brien , author of the of late updated book " surreptitious Lives of the U.S. Presidents , " enounce all of these presidential trickery really are n’t that strange . Because when you recollect about it , who would want to become president ? It ’s a demanding , trying job . And in the final stage , you ’re often remembered primarily for your failures and flaw .
" So yes , on the one hired hand , a lot of these guys have been strange , or strange - way-out - bizarre , " O’Brien says . " But on the other hand , should we be surprised since they were draw to office in the first place ? "
To learn more about the oddball habits of America ’s loss leader ( including Franklin Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson ) as well as what was behind the pick of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore , download"Who ’s Our Weirdest President ? "
