Hello all. I will be taking over the Monday Trivia for at least a while. I do not expect to be as good as Burt at finding questions that are both difficult but answerable. I have a couple coming down the pipe, but this one may be answered pretty quickly:
George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon all have something in common. What?
There is more than one criterion involved.
Born Jewish then changed their names/converted before they decided to get into politics?
All were presidents of the United States, and none were either professional baseball players or the Dalai Lama.
Well, this is true, but the multiple criteria in this particular case are related. Such as (and this is not it) “All three were presidents who went to Canada in the first 30 days of their presidency” (No, the answer isn’t that obscure. And no, I don’t think those three went to Canada in the first 30 days of their presidency.)
Mike Schilling,
Yeah, but I think Nixon was briefly a Panchen Lama in the 1940s.
That’s why he could go to Tibet.
Only he could.
All three are not a potted plant?
All three Presidents married against their families’ wishes?
All three died more than ten years before or after any other president.
I like this one
Dude, that’s a better question/answer than mine! Any idea what else they might have in common?
Is it chronic disabilities? (No teeth, bad back, polio?)
That’s not a bad guess, especially since both FDR and Nixon ended up in wheelchairs. But no, not related to any disabilities.
All married women who were either older than they were, not known by their first name, or both.
Is the list exhaustive? Are Washington, FDR, and Nixon the only Presidents about whom these criteria are true?
Yes they are. There are other presidents who meet one of the criteria, but these three are different from those (and if I listed those, it would take two minutes for somebody to figure it out).
(I swear, next week’s question will be less convoluted!)
All three nominated four or more supreme court justices?
They did! But so did others. Another good one, though, since Washington obviously had a blank slate to work from and FDR was president for so long.
(Interestingly, some of these answers make me wish they had been the original question. But it’s giving me ideas for future reference!)
Tuesday hint*: If I had asked the question the other way around (“Which three presidents…”), Richard Nixon would have been the obvious one. The other two would have required more thought. One of the other two actually made the question so difficult to phrase that I chose to ask it this way.
* – It’s actually still Monday in Arapaho, but I have a subbing assignment tomorrow (so responses might lag…). And it’s Tuesday on the east coast. So there.
All three served elected terms of less than four years for reasons other than death. Nixon due to resignation. FDR due his first inaguration being on March 4, 1933 and second being on January 20, 1937. Washington’s first term began on April 30, 1789 and second on March 4, 1793.
Add “without dying”, of course, but very, very nice..
You did say that. Sorry.
Randy, you are the two-time reigning champ.