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We all know Spokane has an abundance of streets that share names with past presidents. And in the case of Washington and Lincoln, most of us even know something about the men in question. But what if you went out to other presidential streets and randomly asked people about those historical figures? With an eye toward Monday’s celebration of Presidents’ Day, that’s just what photographer Jesse Tinsley and I did last week. The first stop on our stupefyingly unscientific survey was a business called 2nd Watch Monitoring – “The Leader in Alternative Sentencing” – at 815 N. Monroe St. I asked a friendly woman named Kim Holbert if she knew anything about President Monroe. “Not necessarily,” she said/Paul Turner, The Slice, SR. More here.
Question: Without looking, what do you know about President James K. Polk?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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Cindy_H on February 16 at 9:50 a.m.
James K. Polk invented the polka. He was a weak and ineffectual president because he spent far too much time schottisching around to get anything done.
hhuseland on February 16 at 10:04 a.m.
Wasn’t Polk president when we purchased the Gadsden Purchase, which was Arizona and New Mexico?
thomg57 on February 16 at 10:06 a.m.
schottisching
Definition please.
Joker on February 16 at 10:25 a.m.
Can i phone a friend, or should I say my alter ego: Bob.
God I love arguing with my self and having people believe it. Best prank ever.
Cindy_H on February 16 at 10:30 a.m.
Google is your friend, Thom.
In addition to inventing the polka, James K. Polk is widely believed to be the originator of the term: Pig in a Polk. As an advocate of pork barrel spending, President Polk traded influence and cabinet positions for slabs of bacon and honey hams.
The term has morphed into the more common “Pig in a poke,” which basically means a risky purchase. Lobbyists hoping to secure Polk’s support quickly learned to get something in writing before their bacon was fried.
Arch_Druid on February 17 at 12:06 a.m.
Among one of the more forgettable presidents and with Good Reason.