44 Weeks until Election Day

43 Presidents to talk about, 42 men who have held the office, see where I'm going with this? Time for a little American History lesson.

Recently at work, my friends and I have been trying to count off the presidents. We get lost in those years pre- and post-Lincoln. I knew a guy in elementary school, Bruce Farbstein, who could recite them all, forwards and backwards, in like two minutes. A little weird, I'll give you, but cool, in a geeky kind of way.

Also, there was a recent article on the Washington Post about the unfinished work of publishing the papers of the Founders (ooh! Mandatory Archival Content!). Here is the gist of the article, as I think the link will soon be dead.

Projects were begun in the 1940s to process and make available the papers of the Founding Fathers, including George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. A recent study by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, Washington's papers will not be finished until 2023, John Adams's papers will not be done until 2050. Who's done? Alexander Hamilton. Why? Not a big volume of papers, you may recall Hamilton died at age 49 after a duel with Aaron Burr.

There is some pressure being exerted to get to work on the papers, and to allocate some additional resources to get the job(s) done. David McCullough and the current Librarian of Congress are leading the way. One reason the pace is so slow is cost. For example, a complete set of 26 volumes of the papers of Alexander Hamilton runs about $2,600. A recent poll of public libraries found that very few have many if any of the volumes on their shelves, for exactly that reason.

So what will we (I) be doing here each Tuesday? Basically, giving out some facts and trivia about the men who have served as President of the United States. Feel free to comment when I talk about your favorites. These weekly posts will also serve as a reminder to check out my political blog as the presidential race heads to its finish and the nation elects the 44th President of the United States, who will not be William Harrison Mitchell. And it also gets me some filler to help me not fall down the rabbit hole of the Internet so much.

Next week, Number 1, numero uno, the Father of Our Country. The First George W.