Nerd Trips may now be helping me with the crossword puzzle! Yesterday’s (1/17) New York Times crossword featured the following clue: “President who was once New York’s governor.” Unfortunately, we have not had a major Nerd Trip to see places associated with this man, so I didn’t get it right away. But, I knew the puzzle had a Sesame Street theme, so with the letters I had, I was able to fill in “Grover Cleveland.”
This prompted me to look up Grover Cleveland in the presidents’ guide. There are definitely some locations we need to visit!
Grover Cleveland grave, Princeton, NJ
However, I had forgotten that we had a brief Cleveland encounter in September 2011 when we had a “Bonus Nerd Trip” to Princeton. (My brother called it a “hijacked family trip”). We saw Grover Cleveland’s grave in Princeton Cemetery, but I haven’t written up that trip yet* (it involves the first ever “aborted Nerd Trip.”) In Princeton Cemetery, we had a bonus within the Bonus Nerd Trip – discovering some other famous folks buried there, including Aaron Burr!
I have no idea why there are beads draped across the markers of President Cleveland and some of his family members. I tried looking it up on the Internet, but my brief searching did not uncover anything. I will e-mail the cemetery director to see if we can get an answer.
Looking up President Cleveland in some of my reference books, here are a few facts about our 22nd and 24th president (the only president elected to two non-consecutive terms):
-Before he was president, Cleveland worked as a clerk, a teacher and a lawyer
-His mother was born in Baltimore
-His first name is actually Stephen
-During his first term, the United States accepted the Statue of Liberty from France (1886)
-He vetoed more than 400 bills in his first term
-He had the nickname of “Grover the Good”
-He was the only president to be married in the White House
(As an aside, my cat Gus was almost named Grover as I got him when I was living in Cleveland. Also, Mike Hargrove was managing the Indians at that time and his nickname was Grover. I also liked Grover from Sesame Street. However, Gus was named after a football player, at the urging of my father, but that’s a different story)
Poe Portrait, Poe House Baltimore
Just a heads up, tomorrow (1/19) is big day in Baltimore, the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe. For decades, the mysterious Poe toaster brought a rose and some cognac to Poe’s grave at Westminster Hall, which is very near my office. But, for the past few years, the Poe toaster has been a no-show. I will let you know tomorrow if he shows up. It may also be a good opportunity to revisit the Mini Nerd Trip to the Poe House in Baltimore, which is still under threat of closing due to lack of funding. Here’s a link to a Baltimore Sun article about the possible visit of the Poe Toaster tomorrow: https://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/bs-ae-poe-0118-20120118,0,3331884.story
*P.S. Since I wrote this original post, I have written about our Nerd Trip to Princeton Cemetery. Here’s a link: https://bit.ly/1zVs7iO
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