Nixon Was a Bowler

Let's suppose you're the leader of the free world. Your après-lunch meeting with your spymaster has been postponed, and you've got nothing scheduled until your 4 p.m. nap. What do you do to kill the time? Grover Cleveland would have nipped off to a beer garden. Woodrow Wilson probably would have labored over his fiction writing. And Calvin Coolidge most likely would have just begun his nap early. Historian Paul F. Boller Jr. has combed the archives for facts and anecdotes about the leisure-time habits of every president from first to worst and compiled them in his latest book, Presidential Diversions: Presidents at Play from George Washington to George W. Bush. Boller discusses his book, Jimmy Carter's skill as a high-diver and other fun facts at 7 p.m. this evening at Left Bank Books (399 North Euclid Avenue; 314-367-6731 or www.left-bank.com). Admission is free.
Thu., April 17, 2008