John Kennedy was not a jelly doughnut

For years I've heard the rumor that when John Kennedy went to Berlin and declared "Eich bein ein Berliner," what he said was not "I am a Berliner," but "I am a jelly doughnut." But I've also heard that that is a rumor that is not true. It came up today at work, and I did a little bit of online research. So, once and for all, it is not true. First of all, it was clear from the context what Kennedy meant. He was not giving a speech about pastries; he was giving a speech about the Cold War. The equivalent in English would be saying "I am a danish." It sounds a little awkward, but if you were talking about foreign policy, everyone would understand that by "danish," you were referring to yourself as a citizen a small northern European country (even if you aren't a citizen of that country), not what you had for breakfast.

Kennedy got it right. Good to know that one urban legend is just that.

Speaking of northern European countries and doughnuts, Andrew Sullivan happened to post this old clip from a Muppets show. He was referring to Obama's plan for the bank bailout as being "not Swedish," i.e. not nationalizatin. I'm going to take advantage of the coincidence and post it. If you watch closely, it's really well done - the doughnuts land perfectly.

Presidential trivia - not many boys in the White House

When the Obamas move into the White House, they will bring their two daughters, Malia and Sasha. The Bushes also had two daughters, Jenna and Barbara. And of course, the Clintons had Chelsea. Lots of Presidential daughters in the last three administrations.

This got me thinking: when was the last time there was a boy - i.e., a son younger than 18 - in the White House? Turns out that it's been a while. The last male descendant of a president to live in the White House while younger than 18 was John F. Kennedy, Jr., 45 years ago. The Kennedy's had another son after John John, Patrick, who died two days after he was born.

Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon both had two daughters. Gerald Ford had four kids. His youngest son, Steven, turned 18 just two and a half months before his father assumed the presidency. Jimmy Carter had three sons and one daughter; the three sons were all adults when Carter was elected. Amy grew up in the White House.

So it's been a long time since there's been a little boy running around the White House. Not important, really, but sort of interesting.