Happy Presidents' Day

Some fun facts and a day off.

I’m Isaac Saul, and this is Tangle: an independent, ad-free, subscriber-supported politics newsletter that summarizes the best arguments from across the political spectrum on the news of the day — then “my take.”

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Hey everyone,

As many longtime readers know, Tangle observes national holidays and our staff takes the occasional break here and there to ensure we continue to send out the best product possible (and to model healthy regulation of your news intake).

We're off today for Presidents' Day, but in honor of the holiday, I'd like to share my favorite presidential biography I've read recently: John Adams, by David McCullough. And three of my favorite fun facts about presidents:

The "S" is Harry S. Truman doesn't actually stand for anything.
The president with the most children was John Tyler, who had 15 between two wives. Tyler served from 1841 to 1845 and his children were born between 1815 and 1860.
The first president to be born in the United States was Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the U.S., who was born in New York in 1782. The first seven presidents were all born before the United States gained final independence. The ninth president, William Henry Harrison, was also born before 1776, meaning he was technically not born in the United States.

I thought I might also use this opportunity to share five of our most popular posts from the last few months, in case you missed them.