Zachary Taylor

IT WAS with no little trepidation that we read the word "Bulletin" on our computerized news wire the other day. That is the warning in newspaperese that some monumental event has just occurred, as in:"Bulletin: Japanese warplanes bombed Pearl Harbor this morning" or " Bulletin Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak was snapped at 56 straight games tonight in Cleveland."So it was with apprhension that we read: "Bulletin: Louisville, Ky., (Reuter) -- An autopsy on the remains of President Zachary Taylor showed he was not poisoned by arsenic 141 years ago, ending the debate about whether he or Abraham Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated, Kentucky Medical Examiner Dr. George Nichols announced Wednesday."

On June 13, 2003 GERALDINE ROSE (Geri) of Ocean City, formerly of Baltimore; daughter of the late Joseph and Alma Caschetta, beloved wife of John H. (Jack) Schleicher; mother of Delores Taylor and husband Bruce, Jack Schleicher Jr., sister of Bonnie Caschetta, Alice Schlicht, Sandra Gingras, Joyce Franklin, Richard Caschetta and the late Pat Caschetta. Grandmother of Brucei and Zachary Taylor, Johnny and Michelle McGabe; four great-grandchildren and many friends and relatives. Mass of Christian Burial on Wednesday at noon at St. John Neumann Church, Rt. 589 and Beauchamp Road.

On June 13, 2003 GERALDINE ROSE (Geri) of Ocean City, formerly of Baltimore; daughter of the late Joseph and Alma Caschetta, beloved wife of John H. (Jack) Schleicher; mother of Delores Taylor and husband Bruce, Jack Schleicher Jr., sister of Bonnie Caschetta, Alice Schlicht, Sandra Gingras, Joyce Franklin, Richard Caschetta and the late Pat Caschetta. Grandmother of Brucei and Zachary Taylor, Johnny and Michelle McGabe; four great-grandchildren and many friends and relatives. Mass of Christian Burial on Wednesday at noon at St. John Neumann Church, Rt. 589 and Beauchamp Road.

Thomas Jefferson won a permanent place in the American heart for his part in writing the Declaration of Independence. The press, however, attacked his epicurean dining style even though dining at his table was the biggest social coup of the day. The nation loved Franklin Delano Roosevelt for guiding it through the Great Depression and World War II. Yet foreign correspondents were outraged when he served hot dogs to the king and queen of England even though...

Comparing the 40 individuals who have reached the presidency,one is struck less by what they have in common than by their differences.Consider education. George Washington, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Jackson, Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson had no formal schooling, while Harry Truman had only a public-school education. This is hardly surprising considering the few centers of higher education in the earlier days of the republic.On the other hand, two-thirds of our presidents were college graduates or had some college education.

THE LONG national nightmare is over: Zachary Taylor died of natural causes and NOT as the result of someone slipping him an arsenic cocktail or dropping a piano on his head from 12 stories up or whatever it was that that writer was hinting at.Certainly the news out of Louisville has done much to calm the American psyche.Was it me or did it seem that everywhere you went in recent weeks, people were huddled around TV sets and radios, clamoring for the latest info on the exhumation of the 12th president of the United States?

AMERICANS can claim "Yankee Doodle" as one of their very own -- native born, not foreign. The tune ranks as one of the most popular in Colonial times, during the Revolutionary War and well after it. It was the original carrier of American patriotism, a thumb-your-nose outcry against a parent country.Once, it had been taken for granted that the simple ditty was of English origin, probably from a nursery rhyme. Other theories had the song arising from Dutch, French or even German sources. Exhaustive research by Prof.

A friend called on the phone and asked what I was doing."Nothing," I lied.I could have said I was busy digging up Zachary Taylor, and that would have beaten the truth, which was this: I was watching the NBA draft on TV.Yeah, I know. What kind of person tunes in the draft when he could have been watching "Jake and the Fatman"? Is that not the very definition of a life of quiet desperation? I mean, would you invite your friends over to watch NBA commissioner David Stern intone, "Minnesota picks Luc Longley"?

GOV. DOUGLAS WILDER made his last last official public appearance at his alma mater in Richmond on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.There the only black ever popularly elected governor in America was saluted with, "Thank you for living the dream." He certainly proved that Dr. King's dream of Southern blacks and whites unshackled from centuries of racism could come true.Governor Wilder left office not only having accomplished a historic breakthrough in electability, but also with a record of solid accomplishment.

WHAT A GREAT week for 19th century political parties! Physicians examining a dead Whig (Zachary Taylor) and partisans and journalists examining a live populist (Tom Harkin).The Democrats held the first of the so-called "cattle shows," where would-be presidential candidates show rank-and-filers where's the beef. This was the Wisconsin Democratic Party State Convention at Milwaukee. Four prospects spoke to nearly a thousand delegates. They were Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and Paul Tsongas, the former senator from Massachusetts.

GOV. DOUGLAS WILDER made his last last official public appearance at his alma mater in Richmond on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.There the only black ever popularly elected governor in America was saluted with, "Thank you for living the dream." He certainly proved that Dr. King's dream of Southern blacks and whites unshackled from centuries of racism could come true.Governor Wilder left office not only having accomplished a historic breakthrough in electability, but also with a record of solid accomplishment.

Annapolis. -- To a 16-year-old country boy in brown corduroy knee pants, that day with the parade, the crowds and the big-city atmosphere was the most exciting since our family got its first Atwater-Kent radio.I was one of a school bus full of Calvert County boys and girls making my first visit to our nation's capital, and I didn't waste any time staking out the lamp post on the southeast corner of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue as the best place to watch the action.It was March 4, 1929, and Herbert Hoover was being sworn in as America's 31st president by Chief Justice (and former President)

Comparing the 40 individuals who have reached the presidency,one is struck less by what they have in common than by their differences.Consider education. George Washington, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Jackson, Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson had no formal schooling, while Harry Truman had only a public-school education. This is hardly surprising considering the few centers of higher education in the earlier days of the republic.On the other hand, two-thirds of our presidents were college graduates or had some college education.

A friend called on the phone and asked what I was doing."Nothing," I lied.I could have said I was busy digging up Zachary Taylor, and that would have beaten the truth, which was this: I was watching the NBA draft on TV.Yeah, I know. What kind of person tunes in the draft when he could have been watching "Jake and the Fatman"? Is that not the very definition of a life of quiet desperation? I mean, would you invite your friends over to watch NBA commissioner David Stern intone, "Minnesota picks Luc Longley"?

THE LONG national nightmare is over: Zachary Taylor died of natural causes and NOT as the result of someone slipping him an arsenic cocktail or dropping a piano on his head from 12 stories up or whatever it was that that writer was hinting at.Certainly the news out of Louisville has done much to calm the American psyche.Was it me or did it seem that everywhere you went in recent weeks, people were huddled around TV sets and radios, clamoring for the latest info on the exhumation of the 12th president of the United States?

IT WAS with no little trepidation that we read the word "Bulletin" on our computerized news wire the other day. That is the warning in newspaperese that some monumental event has just occurred, as in:"Bulletin: Japanese warplanes bombed Pearl Harbor this morning" or " Bulletin Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak was snapped at 56 straight games tonight in Cleveland."So it was with apprhension that we read: "Bulletin: Louisville, Ky., (Reuter) -- An autopsy on the remains of President Zachary Taylor showed he was not poisoned by arsenic 141 years ago, ending the debate about whether he or Abraham Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated, Kentucky Medical Examiner Dr. George Nichols announced Wednesday."

Annapolis. -- To a 16-year-old country boy in brown corduroy knee pants, that day with the parade, the crowds and the big-city atmosphere was the most exciting since our family got its first Atwater-Kent radio.I was one of a school bus full of Calvert County boys and girls making my first visit to our nation's capital, and I didn't waste any time staking out the lamp post on the southeast corner of 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue as the best place to watch the action.It was March 4, 1929, and Herbert Hoover was being sworn in as America's 31st president by Chief Justice (and former President)

The dust of America's 12th president has been disturbed in a Louisville, Ky., tomb. A coroner and a forensic anthropologist are seeking to still or confirm speculation that Zachary Taylor, not Lincoln, was the first president assassinated. Whatever is learned in this investigation will serve human happiness by underscoring the lovely contingency of history.If Taylor was deliberately poisoned, the foul deed most likely was done by Southerners angry about his opposition to the expansion of slavery.

WHAT A GREAT week for 19th century political parties! Physicians examining a dead Whig (Zachary Taylor) and partisans and journalists examining a live populist (Tom Harkin).The Democrats held the first of the so-called "cattle shows," where would-be presidential candidates show rank-and-filers where's the beef. This was the Wisconsin Democratic Party State Convention at Milwaukee. Four prospects spoke to nearly a thousand delegates. They were Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and Paul Tsongas, the former senator from Massachusetts.

The dust of America's 12th president has been disturbed in a Louisville, Ky., tomb. A coroner and a forensic anthropologist are seeking to still or confirm speculation that Zachary Taylor, not Lincoln, was the first president assassinated. Whatever is learned in this investigation will serve human happiness by underscoring the lovely contingency of history.If Taylor was deliberately poisoned, the foul deed most likely was done by Southerners angry about his opposition to the expansion of slavery.