On Presidents' Day: Try Reading a Good Book
Presidents Day is celebrated on the 3 rd Monday in February. Traditionally it was celebrated on February 22, the date of President George Washington’s actual birthday. But specific dates on the calendar have a pesky habit of falling on every day of the week. If what you want is not just to commemorate our first President, but to create a three-day holiday for the nation’s workers, you have to set not a date, but a day. So, in 1971 the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was passed, and Washington’s Birthday became, “President’s Day.” Decades ago I read my first Presidential biography. It was the life of Woodrow Wilson, and I have been hooked ever since. I’ve covered 23 of our 44 Presidents so far. I don’t read them in any particular order. Travel, current events or a whisper on the wind will dictate which biography I start next. Sometimes one biography leads to another. After reading the spectacular book, Truman , by David McCullough, I was eager to read a biography o