With President’s Day coming up soon here’s the first of many seasonal posts.
John Adams called the Vice Presidency “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived.” A very old joke went “Once there were two brothers. One ran away to sea and the other became Vice President. Neither was ever heard from again.”
In George S Kaufman’s and Morrie Ryskind’s classic stage work Of Thee I Sing one of the characters turns down an offer to be Vice President because he’s ashamed to have his mother know. He’s persuaded to accept the office when it’s pointed out that if he doesn’t tell her about it she’ll never find out.
The office has featured eminently forgettable figures as well as comic relief buffoons like Dan “The Global Village Idiot” Quayle and Joe “Koo Koo For Cocoa Puffs” Biden. In the light-hearted style of Balladeer’s Blog’s look at U.S. Presidents here’s a look at the men who got to hang around and see if the country’s Chief Executive wound up six feet under. I’m omitting VP’s who went on to actually become President, so no John Adams or Thomas Jefferson, etc.
AARON BURR
Served Under: Jefferson
Noted for: Shooting dead more Treasury Secretaries and hatching more plots to start his own country than any other Vice President. (So far, anyway.)
Best Burr Quote: “I’m still searching for the real killers of Alexander Hamilton.”
GEORGE CLINTON
Served Under: Jefferson and Madison
Noted for: P-Funk and Funkadelic Leading American Rebel forces against the British troops of his loyalist cousin Sir Henry Clinton during the Revolutionary War.
Best Clinton Quote: “Do fries go with that shake?”
ELBRIDGE GERRY
Served Under: Madison
Noted for: Pioneering the method of “Gerrymandering” political districts in a way that the modern day Democrats and Republicans have raised to a mainstay in the world of white collar crime which they inhabit.
Best Gerry Quote: “I’ll be immortalized as the man who invented Elbridge-mandering!”
DANIEL D TOMPKINS
Served Under: Monroe Continue reading
3. FLASHMAN’S LADY (1977) 
Synopsis: As the story begins Harry Flashman is still enjoying War Hero status and converting that fame into easier access to the bedrooms of various ladies. Presently the scoundrel finds himself pressed into playing on a Cricket team with some of his former classmates from Rugby School in Warwickshire. 
NUMBER ONE – My two-part look at NEW DEMOCRAT SLOGANS was a comedy hit. This “Party of CEO’s” has come to deserve its reputation for having driven away all of us except pompous snobs and hilariously pretentious asses. 
NUMBER TWO – One of Balladeer’s Blog’s most popular Ancient Science Fiction posts EVER was this look at a very obscure 1896 work and its fascinating female lead. 
NUMBER THREE – Legendary Camille Paglia was in rare form this year, speaking on behalf of all of us who left the Democrats in disgust in recent years. 
NUMBER FOUR – For Frontierado Season this year one of my blog posts dealt with the story-telling possibilities inherent in a neglected aspect of Mormon history. 
NUMBER FIVE – Another western figure got a lot of attention in July, a gunslinging lady who braved Old California on a stage coach route. 
I devote a lot of space to those courageous Muslims who take on the fanatics in their own faith PLUS have to face down the condescending white Westerners who think that ONLY Muslims who hate the Western World are “authentic.”
Balladeer’s Blog wrings down the curtain on Veterans Day of 2017 with this item. In keeping with the whole “Eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” tradition here are eleven World War One figures who were awarded the Medal of Honor. 
JAKE ALLEX 
J.M. SWAAB – Jacques Michael Swaab didn’t even take to the air with the 22nd Aero Squadron until August 27th of 1918 but before the war ended on November 11th he managed 10 confirmed kills and SEVEN more possible. At that rate Swaab could have challenged Eddie Rickenbacker’s total of 26 kills if he had started earlier in the war. 
FRANK LEAMAN BAYLIES – For the first eleven days of November Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at neglected figures of World War One, ending on Veterans Day. Frank Leaman Baylies tried to serve as a pilot in the U.S. Army but was rejected for supposedly poor vision, so in May 1917 he enlisted in the French flying corps instead. 
