Chapter 55

G’day all! This is Sweetie, posting on behalf of my beloved OGD. Before I continue, we want to thank everyone who offered well wishes for his health and recovery. He is home and resting and doing fine. I think the naughty nurse outfit helps to motivate him (sorry, not posting any pictures!). Many of you know there is a bit of an age gap between us (23 years) and I will playfully call him “Daddy” instead of his given name. Sure, it raises a few eyebrows, but so what. We love each other.

So, in His honor, and to recognize the other Dads out there, I am posting the following for you to enjoy.

Gather ‘round the grill and toast Dad for Father’s Day—the national holiday so awesome that Americans have celebrated it for more than a century. Here are 15 Dad facts you can wow him with today.

1.Halsey Taylor invented the drinking fountain in 1912 as a tribute to his father, who succumbed to typhoid fever after drinking from a contaminated public water supply in 1896.

2. George Washington, the celebrated father of our country, had no children of his own. A 2004 study suggested that a type of tuberculosis that Washington contracted in childhood may have rendered him sterile. He did adopt the two children from Martha Custis’s first marriage.

3. In Thailand, the king’s birthday also serves as National Father’s Day. The celebration includes fireworks, speeches, and acts of charity and honor—the most distinct being the donation of blood and the liberation of captive animals.

4. In 1950, after a Washington Post music critic gave Harry Truman’s daughter Margaret’s concert a negative review, the president came out swinging: “Someday I hope to meet you,” he wrote. “When that happens, you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteaks for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below!”

5. A.A. Milne created Winnie the Pooh for his son, Christopher Robin. Pooh was based on Robin’s teddy bear, Edward, a gift Christopher had received for his first birthday, and on their father/son visits to the London Zoo, where the bear named Winnie was Christopher’s favorite. Pooh comes from the name of Christopher’s pet swan.

6. Kurt Vonnegut was (for a short time) Geraldo Rivera’s father-in-law. Rivera’s marriage to Edith Vonnegut ended in 1974 because of his womanizing. Her ever-protective father was quoted as saying, “If I see Gerry again, I’ll spit in his face.” He also included an unflattering character named Jerry Rivers (a chauffeur) in a few of his books. (Okay, so Daddy had to explain to me just who Kurt Vonnegut and Geraldo Rivera were.)