Your knowledge of US Presidents

HarryKeogh

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Starting from the present, how far back can you correctly name the Presidents of the Unites States?

ex. Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, etc...

I got stuck going back 13 Presidents, I skipped one...shame on me. My co-worker was able to get them all in about 10 minutes working it out on paper. (he's a big time history buff and a pretty bright guy)

ok, so honor system...how far back?

(I guess this can go in the puzzles forum but bear with me.)
 
I know them all, in and out of order.

I don't say this to brag. I say it because I learned the presidents as a test of Harry Lorayne's memory techniques. I went all the way through school and never knew whether Taylor came before Tyler. (Taylor was No. 12, Tyler No. 10).

Using Harry's techniques, I memorized all of the presidents and their numbers in a matter of fifteen minutes, and I've not forgotten them! Harry's techniques work.
 
I can name all the presidents in the 20th century. A few from the 19th, and a few from the 18th. I'm kind of a nerd in this respect though, presidential trivia was always an interest of mine growing up.
 
I always get confused by Grover Cleveland.

Grover Cleveland (1885-1889)
Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
Grover Cleveland (1893-1897)
William McKinley (1897-1901)
Theodore Roosevelt (1901)


Clearly, Cleveland was president once. Then he was killed by Harrison, who took the next term. But Cleveland was actually a vampire, and thus returned from the grave to sweep the polls in 1892. But McKinley staked him in the heart and became president in 1897. Roosevelt, who was clearly Cleveland's Renfield, shot McKinley in 1901 to avenge his master's murder. Roosevelt later died, but came back as a zombie under the pseudonym "Franklin Delano Roosevelt" later on, and pretended to be his own relative.

History makes sense if you take the time to work it out.
 
HarryKeogh said:
Starting from the present, how far back can you correctly name the Presidents of the Unites States?

ex. Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, etc...
Click to expand...
You had a President named "Clinton"?
 
HarryKeogh said:
Starting from the present, how far back can you correctly name the Presidents of the Unites States?

ex. Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, etc...

I got stuck going back 13 Presidents, I skipped one...shame on me. My co-worker was able to get them all in about 10 minutes working it out on paper. (he's a big time history buff and a pretty bright guy)

ok, so honor system...how far back?

(I guess this can go in the puzzles forum but bear with me.)
Click to expand...

As of your post four.
 
HarryKeogh said:
Starting from the present, how far back can you correctly name the Presidents of the Unites States?

ex. Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, etc...

I got stuck going back 13 Presidents, I skipped one...shame on me. My co-worker was able to get them all in about 10 minutes working it out on paper. (he's a big time history buff and a pretty bright guy)

ok, so honor system...how far back?

(I guess this can go in the puzzles forum but bear with me.)
Click to expand...

From memory:

Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhauer, Truman, Roosevelt, Hoover, Harding, Wilson, Taft, Roosevelt, McKinley, Cleveland, Harrison, Cleveland, and that's as far back as I can get.

After double-checking:

Dang it! Left out Coolidge. Oh, well... And I can NEVER remember Arthur for some reason.
 
Re: Re: Your knowledge of US Presidents

shanek said:
Dang it! Left out Coolidge.
Click to expand...

I remember Coolidge because of what Dorothy Parker said when she was informed of his death. She said "How can you tell?"

A good skeptic's question if I've ever heard one.
 
All of them, from Washington to Bush 43. Nerdy, I know. My parents had a book when I was a kid, called "The Story of America In Pictures." Goes back to pre-Columbian times, one picture/photo per page, with a paragraph or two for each one. At the very end was several pages of the presidents, two per page, with a paragraph next to each one, ending with Eisenhower.

For a ten-year old kid who liked reading anyway, this was a great intro to American history. Anyway, with the book dividing the presidents into bite-size chunks, it wasn't long before I knew what picture came in what order, and one day, I realized I knew almost all of them in order. Took only a little more work to get them all.

It's still available (used) on amazon.com.

I can do all the states, too (mess up a few of the capitals).

And I never forget my wife's birthday or our anniversary, either.

But when I'm introduced to people at a party, names go straight out of my head seconds later. It's embarrassing.
 
BPSCG said:
But when I'm introduced to people at a party, names go straight out of my head seconds later. It's embarrassing.
Click to expand...

Here's a simple mnemonic trick to remembering people's names. Ask yourself three easy questions:

1. Will this person be giving me money?
2. Will this person be giving me sex?
3. Is this person a relative of mine?

If the answer to all three is "No", then you have no need to remember their name at all.
 
TragicMonkey said:


1. Will this person be giving me money?
2. Will this person be giving me sex?
3. Is this person a relative of mine?

If the answer to all three is "No", then you have no need to remember their name at all.
Click to expand...


And if the answer to all three is "yes", you've got problems.
 
Tony said:
And if the answer to all three is "yes", you've got problems.
Click to expand...

It could be a relative by marriage. Those are fair game. (And it makes a big family Thanksgiving dinner so much more entertaining.)
 
I can name them all from memory in less than 15 seconds...starting from the beginning. Going backwords takes much more time, because that wasn't a "challenge" in my eighth grade social studies class.

Guess what was...:D
 
TragicMonkey said:
1. Will this person be giving me money?
2. Will this person be giving me sex?
3. Is this person a relative of mine?

If the answer to all three is "No", then you have no need to remember their name at all.
Click to expand...
Okay. So the reason I should remember your name is...
 
In grade school we had to memorize all the Presidents and VP's, but I could just now only make it back to Teddy without messing up.
 
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