1

Skip Air Force One

Beyond the wishes of any president, flying on a commercial airline is completely forbidden under any circumstances. Due to security concerns, Air Force One is meant to be the only way a president can travel by air. But there is actually a historic exception in this matter. In 1973, during the oil crisis, Richard Nixon flew on a regular United Airlines flight to California . The trip was meant to show support for energy-saving efforts nationwide.

2

Break the two-term rule

Did you know that before Franklin D. Roosevelt, presidents were not limited to two terms? They mostly followed a tradition started by George Washington, the first US president in 1789, who decided to step down after his second term. It wasn’t until the 22nd Amendment in 1951 that two terms became the official legal limit to moderate the accumulation of power in one person.

Roosevelt, who was president from 1933 to 1945 , was the only president to break that tradition because of the country's exceptional situation: During the Great Depression and World War II, many Americans wanted solid leadership. He ended up winning four elections, but died of a stroke in 1945 during his fourth term.

3

Take diplomatic gifts home

Presidents have to buy their own gifts? Truth is, they can receive gifts from foreign leaders, but they cannot always keep them as personal presents. If a gift is expensive enough to go over the government’s "minimal value" limit, it is treated as a gift to the American people. From there, the White House Gift Unit helps decide what happens to it. In fact, the president or First Lady can still keep the gift, but only if they buy it at fair market value. This rule exists so that a diplomatic gift does not appear to be a personal favor.

4

Own their official speeches

A president can stand at a podium and deliver a speech heard around the world, but that does not mean he is the private author of those words. Under U.S. copyright law, official presidential speeches are usually considered part of the public record because they are part of the job. That means people can quote them, share them, and reuse them more freely than a normal copyrighted text. You could say that the speech belongs less to the president and more to the country.

5

Enjoy a simple breeze

Picture the president’s reaction on his first day of office when he is advised that he is prohibited from opening windows. The White House and presidential vehicles keep their windows sealed to prevent the president from being attacked.

Michelle Obama once shared that there was one small break from those strict rules . During a short drive to Camp David, her Secret Service agent allowed her to open the car windows for a few minutes. She later described it as a feeling of normal people's luxury.

6

Block followers from official pages

What about the president’s digital life? Technology advances quickly, and presidential security must keep up; presidents cannot simply use personal social media without being monitored. In 2018, a federal judge ruled that a president cannot block people from official social media spaces, because those accounts can be treated as public forums. So even online, presidents have some restrictions to follow.

7

Hit the road by themselves

While in office, presidents and vice presidents are not allowed to drive on open roads. What’s more, the Secret Service must control their transportation in real time . There are some exceptions, though: inside personal properties, and in places like Camp David, they can drive, walk, and even ride a bike.

8

Throw away their own papers

Presidents also cannot treat their office like a normal workspace. Under the Presidential Records Act, letters, notes, and emails may count as official records. That means presidents are discouraged from simply cleaning up or throwing mail away on their own. Instead, White House staff must sort everything carefully first, so no important piece of history ends up in the trash by accident.

9

Join normal family outings

Imagine the scene of the president casually arriving at his child’s school one morning. As we would assume, there are security restrictions that prevent presidents from attending a child or grandchild's concert or sporting event. These restrictions affect the entire First Family, but they also keep everyday situations from turning chaotic.

10

Scroll through a normal inbox

Even the president’s inbox has personal security. People can send a message to the president online, but it does not go straight to a personal email account; it actually goes through the official White House contact form first. Then staff members read it, sort it, and decide where it should go. Since presidential emails can become part of the public record, they must be saved and handled carefully.

1

Ronald Reagan: The Jelly Bean Fanatic

Ronald Reagan kept a jar of jelly beans on his desk in the Oval Office and on Air Force One . Blueberry was his favorite flavor, and 3.5 tons of jelly beans were shipped to Washington for his 1981 inauguration.

The Jelly Belly company even created a special blueberry flavor just for Reagan's presidential inauguration. Cabinet meetings apparently featured bowls of the colorful candies, and Reagan would munch on them during crucial policy discussions.

2

John Quincy Adams: The Naked Swimmer

John Quincy Adams had a rather unusual morning routine that would absolutely not fly today. The sixth president would wake up early, walk down to the Potomac River, strip off all his clothes, and go for a refreshing swim .

Legend has it that a female reporter once caught wind of this habit and sat on his clothes until he agreed to give her an interview. Adams apparently took it in stride, though one imagines the Secret Service would have a collective heart attack if any modern president tried this stunt.

3

Teddy Roosevelt: The One-Man Zoo

Theodore Roosevelt ran a wildlife sanctuary at the White House . His kids had a veritable menagerie that included a badger, guinea pigs, snakes, and even a one-legged rooster. There are also claims that he kept a bear and a hyena in the House. Oh, and let's not forget about the pony that his son Quentin once took up in the White House elevator.

When President Roosevelt's son Archie fell ill and was confined to bed, his brothers Kermit and Quentin decided to cheer him up by bringing their pony, Algonquin, up to his room via the White House elevator. The plan nearly backfired, though: Algonquin became so captivated by his own reflection in the elevator mirror that getting him out proved to be quite the ordeal.

4

Thomas Jefferson: Ice Cream Pioneer

After his time in France, Jefferson returned with a fancy ice cream recipe and became one of the first Americans to popularize it . He reportedly had an 18-step process for making the stuff.

The Founding Father loved ice cream so much that he designed a special ice house at Monticello, though its purpose went beyond just frozen treats. The structure stored ice and snow harvested from the Rivanna River to refrigerate fresh dairy and meats throughout the year, with ice cream being just one of the delicacies it made possible.

5

Andrew Jackson: Profanity Parrot Owner

Andrew Jackson's pet parrot, Poll, learned a colorful vocabulary from Old Hickory himself. When Jackson died in 1845, the parrot attended his funeral. Unfortunately, as some witnesses declared, Poll had to be removed from the service because the bird wouldn't stop cursing loudly at the mourners.

You have to wonder what that scene was like—somber grieving interrupted by a parrot dropping f-bombs left and right. It's both mortifying and hilarious to imagine the reverend trying to continue the eulogy while this feathered menace squawks profanities from the corner.

6

Gerald Ford: The Model President

Before Gerald Ford became president, he was a legitimate male model . In the 1940s, the future president appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine.

Ford had been a star football player at the University of Michigan, and his athletic build and fame caught the attention of photographers. He modeled to make extra money, appearing in fashion spreads and looking quite dashing, we might add.

7

LBJ: The Presidential Prankster

Lyndon B. Johnson owned an amphibious car that could drive on both land and water. His favorite party trick was to drive guests around his Texas ranch and then pretend the brakes had failed as they headed straight toward a lake . People would scream in terror as the car splashed into the water.

Then, to everyone's shock and relief, the car would simply start floating. Johnson would burst into laughter while his passengers tried to recover from their near-death experience.

8

William Howard Taft: Bathtub Troubles

William Howard Taft was America's heaviest president, weighing in at around 340 pounds. The most famous anecdote about him involves getting stuck in the White House bathtub , though historians debate whether this actually happened. What's definitely true is that he had a custom bathtub installed that could fit four normal-sized men.

9

Calvin Coolidge: The Prankster President

There are claims that Calvin Coolidge would sometimes press all the buttons on his desk to summon his staff, then hide to watch them run around confused, looking for him . Very mature, Mr. President.

Coolidge also had a pet raccoon named Rebecca, who walked on a leash around the White House grounds. Silent Cal might not have talked much, but his actions —and his choice in pets— spoke volumes about his quirky sense of humor.

10

Jimmy Carter: UFO Witness

Jimmy Carter once filed an official report claiming he saw a UFO . In 1969, before becoming president, Carter and a group of people in Georgia witnessed a strange, bright light in the sky that changed colors and moved in unusual ways. He was so convinced of what he saw that he filed paperwork with the International UFO Bureau.

Carter promised during his campaign that if elected, he would release all government information about UFOs. Once in office, though, he was reportedly told some things were too classified even for the president.

1

$125 million for a Grade-school math error

Image: Aaron Lefler

Imagine losing a hugely expensive spacecraft due to a simple mix-up between English and metric measurements . That is exactly what happened to NASA in 1999 when a Mars orbiter designed by Lockheed Martin was lost in space.

The confusion caused a malfunction on the $125 million craft, resulting in the probe’s loss. Although it was unusual for Lockheed to use English measurements for a NASA design (since NASA had stipulated using metric measurements for many years), there were still several instances where the error should have been caught but wasn’t.

2

Toys ‘R’ Us blunder

Image: Taylor Heery

If you think an action figure of a drug dealer isn’t the best idea for a toy store , you’re not alone. Yet, for some reason, Toys "R" Us decided otherwise in October 2014, possibly hoping to cash in on the massive success of the Breaking Bad TV series.

Unsurprisingly, the giant toy retailer was forced to pull from its shelves four collectible dolls based on characters from the AMC hit show, each doll featuring a detachable sack of cash and a bag of meth.

3

Apple Maps' rocky beginnings

Image: CardMapr.nl

When Apple decided to launch its own map application on iOS devices after a conflict with Google in 2012, users quickly realized that the Apple app was not nearly as launch-ready as it should have been .

Locations were mislabeled, roads were missing, and it occasionally steered people in entirely the wrong direction. The problem was eventually, though largely, resolved, but it was an embarrassing misstep for a company known for never launching a product before it was as near-perfect as possible.

4

Bank of America debit card fee

Image: Ali Mkumbwa

Back in 2011, when the backlash against the banking industry had not yet reached its boiling point, Bank of America announced it would charge customers $5 per month to use their debit cards .

It was a bad business decision. More than 300,000 people signed an online petition, and Fox Business Network’s Gerri Willis cut up her debit card on air. The bank pointed to federal regulations as the reason for the charge but ultimately capitulated to consumer demand after a month before the fees went into effect.

5

$33 airline tickets from Toronto to Cyprus

Image: Miguel Ángel Sanz

If buying a business class ticket regularly priced at $2,558 for just $33 sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Except in 2006, when an Alitalia employee accidentally forgot to input two extra zeros when pricing business-class tickets from Toronto to Cyprus.

Due to the exchange rate on that day and the blunder, hundreds of buyers managed to snag fares for just $33. The airline honored those deals, accepting the heavily discounted price for the 509 people who purchased tickets before the error was detected.

6

A $70 million comma

Image: Nattipat Vesvarute

As the folks at NASA and Alitalia have shown us, small errors can lead to costly mistakes. The following blunder comes courtesy of Lockheed Martin , which issued a contract to a customer with a missing comma in the sale price .

The astute customer held the aerospace company to the contract, costing Lockheed Martin $70 million for a C-130J Hercules aircraft in June 1999.

7

Sears misses the ship

Image: Estefania Cortes

A retail giant that faced a situation similar to the one Kodak faced—embrace the new and unknown or cling to the old, successful recipe—Sears sold everything from socks to tires via mail order, shipping across the U.S.

Choosing to stick with the old method, the company ended its catalog and delivery business in 1993 . In 1994, Amazon was founded , filling the business void that Sears had just created. The rest is history.

8

Passing on Microsoft

Image: Jaime Marrero

$60 million might seem like a lot of money to us regular folks, but for someone with very deep pockets like Texas businessman and two-time U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot, it wasn’t all that much.

In 1979, he was offered the chance to buy Microsoft for that sum. However, his final offer to the tech company was just $15 million, and as a result, the Texan missed out on the opportunity to own what would become one of the biggest companies in the world .

9

Blackberry sticks with the old

Image: Thai Nguyen

Another case of a brand sticking with the old instead of embracing the new, BlackBerry was all the rage at the start of the 21st century— until Steve Jobs came along with the Apple iPhone .

While BlackBerry Messenger was extremely popular, with over 80 million users worldwide, the device lacked the new touchscreen functionality and sleek design of the Apple product. From being a market leader, BlackBerry’s market share plummeted to 0.2% by 2016.

10

RadioShack’s downfall

Image: Jelleke Vanooteghem

Not so long ago, RadioShack was a familiar presence on the streets and the go-to place for buying batteries and electronics. But it was that same brick-and-mortar presence, coupled with a reluctance to embrace e-commerce , that ultimately led to its demise .

Eventually, poor profit margins on what they could sell, combined with a loan they couldn’t repay, brought down what was once the go-to place for electronics.