MYTH ALERT! MYTH ALERT!

A response to my Presidents' Day post referred to James K. Polk, and implied that he was once President of the United States. The "Myth of the Polk Presidency" is one of the most enduring urban legends in our nation's history, according to many scholars. It is true that Polk was elected President in 1844, but he never served. On the eve of his inauguration, he was accidentally whacked in the head with a lacrosse stick wielded by the Vice-President-elect, George M. Dallas. This occurred during an impromptu game of "Smash the Goblets" in the Burgundy Room of the White House. Henry Clay and James Buchanan also participated in the match. Polk spent the rest of his life in the basement of the White House, writing children's books under the pen name "Penelope St. Pierre." They sold poorly.

Vice-President Dallas impersonated Polk in public for all four years of Polk's Presidency, and during the first two years provided surrogate conjugal services to Mrs. Polk, the former Sarah Childress.

It was not until 1872 that historians became suspicious, when an article in the American Historical Review noted that no photographs or video recordings existed that featured the President and Vice-President together in public.

In a 1998 poll, U. S. historians ranked the Polk Presidency as the fifth most persistent Presidential myth. The top four:

#1 -- Grover Cleveland was a woman

#2 -- Martin Van Buren was a man

#3 -- Andrew Jackson was born with bison buttocks where his head should have been

#4 -- John F. Kennedy was the out-of-wedlock offspring of Rose Kennedy and W. C. Fields

Thanks for your attention. Beginning in March, "Myth Alert" will become a regular feature of Grin.