Just got confirmation that I will be speaking at American Mensa's Annual Gathering this summer in San Diego, California. My talk will be Sunday, July 3rd, at 12noon. Titled "Hail to the Chiefs! (And their Vice Presidents, and First Ladies…)", you can probably guess what I'll be talking about. July 3rd is the final day of the AG, and while noon is ( Read more... )

I'll blame it on the insanity of returning from WorldCon and catching up, but I missed a significant event which caused an update to The Presidential Book of Lists: Jimmy Carter broke Herbert Hoover's record as the longest-retired President, at more than 31 years, 230 days. The updated chapter 4 from my book is available here.

And why am I up so late if I'm planning to get up early to greet the Enterprise? Because I was putting the finishing touches on my presentation for Saturday morning. I'll be speaking at Greater New York Mensa's Regional Gathering (in White Plains, New York) on a general topic of the Presidents. I'll be covering the Presidents, the Vice Presidents, ( Read more... )

It's Presidents Day (or Presidents' Day, or President's Day), and Ripley Radio (brought to you by the people who tell us to "Believe It or Not") has a special episode up this week. Entitled "Cheese and Children in the White House", the show isn't entirely dedicated to the Presidency, but it does have several stories on that focus. I'm on from the ( Read more... )

Dear friends, fans, and family, acquaintances, associates, and everyone else:

I’m writing to ask you to help me spread the word: I've just launched a Kickstarter Project to help fund the publication of my next book, Ranking the Powers Behind the Oval Office. This new book will be the companion volume to my Presidential Book of Lists (which Random ( Read more... )

I rode the subway into Manhattan today, which used to be an everyday occurrence, but not so much of late (since I've been working from home). As usual, I had a book I was reading. And as usual, I put it down as the train went over the Manhattan Bridge, so I could look out the windows (I always say, I'm only paying a dollar for the ride; the rest of ( Read more... )

I'm trying to decide if it's hubris, irony, or just plain funny ( Read more... )

I'm reposting this review from uspresidents because the book it talks about deserves a wider audience. I think you'll like it:

I'm a President-nut. I also enjoy road trips. So I was thrilled to learn about Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip by Matthew Algeo. This book covers an incredibly small piece of ( Read more... )

This weekend, we went to Central New Jersey Mensa's Snowball Regional Gathering. One of the longest-running Mensa conventions, it's also the closest to my home. Nevertheless, it's been several years since the last time I got to this one ( Read more... )

Being away for nearly a week, and it being the week with the inauguration in it, I've made several appearances on the web that I haven't shared with anyone. So, for my stalkers out there, here are a bunch of places I've appeared recently:

On 16 January, my Op-Ed piece for the New York Daily News ran. They titled it "Obama's inauguration is history ( Read more... )