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30

Nov

Aha Moment Maker: Who’s in Charge?

by Your friends at OIC on November 30, 2013

Politician

WASHINGTON D.C., 1849—America was preparing to inaugurate its 12th President, Zachary Taylor, who had been elected to take over for James K. Polk. At that time, Presidential terms began and expired at noon on March 4. However, this particular March 4 happened to be a Sunday, and the religious Taylor insisted that he instead be sworn in on Monday.

The resulting 24-hour gap has led many to wonder, who was the President of the United States from noon on March 4, 1849, until noon on March 5, 1849?

If you happen by his statue outside of the Clinton County Courthouse in Plattsburg, Missouri, or by his gravestone just a mile away, you might be inclined to think the answer is David Rice Atchison. Both monuments identify Atchison, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1843 to 1855, as “President of the United States for one day.”

Atchison was president pro tempore of the Senate, the position next in the line of succession after the President and Vice President. It stood to reason that with the terms of Polk and his VP having expired, and Taylor and his VP not having yet taken the oath, that Atchison indeed had his day!

The official view is that Taylor’s decision to delay the public inauguration didn’t actually delay his presidency. Atchison, however, enjoyed making his claim and recounting the story for the remainder of his life. He was known to admit that he slept through the majority of his “presidency,” and state that his was “the honestest administration this country ever had.”

What’s the aha moment you see?

 

Image © iStockphoto

 

 

Your Own Aha Moments

23

Nov

Aha Moment Maker: Julia Child Flubs the Flip

by Your friends at OIC on November 23, 2013

Female chef illustrating Julia Child's on-air accident, an opportunity for readers to have their own aha moment

BOSTON, 1963—On an episode of “The French Chef,” Julia Child spoke to the fact that flipping food items in a pan requires courage in one’s convictions. She set the stage perfectly for what would happen next.

That day, she was demonstrating a lesson in how to make potato pancakes. Just as she was deftly performing the outward-and-back motion necessary to flip a pancake, clumps of the potato mixture missed the pan and plopped onto the counter.

Unfazed, Julia acknowledged, “Oh, that didn’t go very well” and calmly scooped the wayward bits back into the pan. Then she pointed out to her viewing audience that they cook alone in their kitchens and nobody would be the wiser if something like this occurred.

And so it was that some of her potato pancake famously flipped out, but the real lesson demonstrated that day may be that Julia Child herself did not.

What’s the aha moment you see?

 

 Image © iStockphoto
 

Your Own Aha Moments

16

Nov

Aha Moment Maker: Inspired by a Wooly Gift

by Your friends at OIC on November 16, 2013

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TEMUCO, CHILE, 1913—A young Pablo Neruda was playing in his backyard when a small boy’s hand suddenly poked through a hole in the wooden fence and deposited a well-worn toy sheep. Neruda was instantly moved, and reciprocated the gesture with his treasured pine cone. He never saw the boy, or even the boy’s hand again, but cherished the toy lamb until it was lost in a fire.

When the famous Chilean poet and activist later recounted the incident in numerous interviews, he credited the mysterious exchange with inspiring his world view of unity and connectedness, and also stated that it was responsible for “giving my poetry light.”

Inspired by his gifts to the world, fans of Neruda have turned the fence at his adult home in Isla Negra, Chile, into a message board and memorial. Every July 12, on his birth date, people tack personal messages to Neruda on the fence and scrawl words of love and prayer onto the boards, simply as a way of saying “thanks.”

What’s the aha moment you see?

 

Image © iStockphoto
 

Your Own Aha Moments

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