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I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: James Madison (and His Wife Dolley) Had a Bird Named Polly

There aren't too many presidential "clubs" whose membership is made up of George Washington, James Madison, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, but there is at least one: These are the chief executives known to have had parrots in the executive mansion. The presence of several early presidents on the list is because a parrot was considered an appropriate pet for women 200 years ago (whereas dogs were a man's pet). The presence of several "earthy" presidents on the list is because parrots can, of course, be trained to say naughty things. And then, they often say them at inopportune times, which quite amused Jackson, Roosevelt, and Johnson. McKinley, who was rather more fastidious, and lived after the era of gendered pets, is in neither category. However, he did train his parrot, Loretta, to whistle "Yankee Doodle." And that concludes today's history lesson.

It has been a minute since we had a regular Friday posting, but the first hint we gave on December 27 was: "if a headline word is misspelled on a Friday, that's usually deliberate, and instructive." And the second hint was "know that we tried hard to work 'Miranda' into a headline, but the only way to do it was by working in a Shakespeare quote, and there were none that worked and that were reasonably short."

And now, the solution, courtesy of reader D.S. in Nashua, NH:

The headlines all reference historic Supreme Court actions:

Merry Christmas, America?: Trump Loses His Mind on Social Media—Trump v. United States

Legal News, Part I: Great Scott! There's Something Called "Discovery?"—Dred Scott v. Sandford

Legal News, Part II: Apparently, Being Brown Is Not, in Fact, a Crime—Brown v. Board of Education

Lessons, Part I: DNC Doesn't Want to Wade Back into the Intra-Party Battles of 2024, Spikes Autopsy—Roe v. Wade

Lessons, Part II: The Contrarian Is Not a Merryman This Christmas—Ex parte Merryman

In Congress: Johnson Puts Up a Record-Breaking Performance—Texas v. Johnson

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Ogden Nash Wrote "The Ostrich" and "The Duck," but Not "The Hen"—Gibbons v. Ogden

This Week in Schadenfreude: Maybe It Was a Mistake to Tinker around with the Kennedy Center Honors—Tinker v. Des Moines

This Week in Freudenfreude: You Have to Be Loving These News Stories—Loving v. Virginia

The hint adds Miranda v. Arizona, while the headline for this item adds Marbury v. Madison. The misspelling on Friday, obviously, was "Merryman," which should have been "Merry Man," if not for the headline game.

Here are the first 60 readers to get it right:

S.G. in Durham, NC
T.K. in Half Moon Bay, St. Kitts
M.W. in Altea, Spain
J.H. in Lake Forest, CA
M.A. in Park Ridge, IL
M.B. in Denver, CO
W.V. in San Jacinto, CA
B.F. in Nashville, TN
M.B. in Albany, NY
N.S. in Los Angeles, CA
P.A. in Redwood City, CA
A.S. in Fairfax, VA
P.H. in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
G.M.K. in Mishawaka, IN
B.P. in Arlington Heights, IL
J.S. in Chevy Chase, MD
M.M. in Dunellen, NJ
S.K. in Ardmore, PA
K.R. in Austin, TX
S.D. in Somerset, NJ
F.D. in Dunedin, FL
R.P. in Brooklyn, NY
M.K. in Long Branch, NJ
S.F. in Pemberton Borough, NJ
T.K. in Manchester, MO
D.L. in Uslar, Germany
H.W. in Seattle, WA
D.M. in Oakland, CA
M.R. in New Brighton, MN
J.M. in Eagle Mills, NY

E.W. in Skaneateles, NY
H.B. in State College, PA
G.K. in Blue Island, IL
R.E.M. in Brooklyn, NY
D.D. in Bucks County, PA
T.C. in Kirkwood, MO
M.H. in Ottawa, ON, Canada
T.P. in Woodland Hills CA
A.A. in Branchport, NY
D.L. in Springfield, IL
K.H. in Albuquerque, NM
B.B. in Avon, CT/San Diego, CA
A.E. in Cleveland, OH
M.Z. in Sharon, MA
M.S. in Canton, NY
D.C. in Portland, OR
P.W. in Tulalip, WA
J.L. in Walnut Creek, CA
G.W. in Avon, CT
G.S. in Basingstoke, England, UK
M.B. in Wichita, KS
J.M. in Silver Spring, MD
R.R. in Pasadena, CA
M.K. in Seattle WA
D.E. in Ann Arbor, MI
N.H. in London, England, UK
A.C. in Kingston, MA
M.J. in Oakdale, MN
B.H. in Sherman Oaks, CA
J.F. in Fayetteville, NC

The 60th correct response was received at 4:00 a.m. PT on Sunday (keeping in mind the original posting was a day late).

For this week's theme, it relies on one word per headline, and it's in the category Language. For a hint, we'll say that the theme is very dark, in a manner of speaking. Oh, and it does not include the first headline, since the Minneapolis story is about someone who died, and we don't make a game out of that.

If you have a guess, send it to comments@electoral-vote.com with subject line January 16 Headlines. (Z)

This item appeared on www.electoral-vote.com. Read it Monday through Friday for political and election news, Saturday for answers to reader's questions, and Sunday for letters from readers.

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