General General 3 min read

Only ours

Wait... doesn't everyone do that? 10 US traditions that confuse the world

Image: Courtney Hedger

If you're from the United States, there are plenty of things we do every day that feel completely normal... until you leave the country. From the legal drinking age of 21 to eating dinner very early, many familiar American customs leave foreigners scratching their heads. Want to know what makes us stand out? Here are 10 uniquely American traditions that the rest of the world finds strange!

1
Legal drinking age

Image: Elevate

When was the first time you tried a beer? Probably at 21 or later. While that's completely normal here in the US, it can seem a bit strange to people in other parts of the world. Why? In America, you can vote, serve on a jury, and even get married in some states at 18, but you still can't legally buy alcohol until you're 21. In many other countries, the legal drinking age is 18—or even younger—and that's why they find our law unusual.

2
The faces of real estate agents

Image: Tierra Mallorca

We're used to walking through a neighborhood and seeing signs with real estate agents' faces in front of homes for sale. But in other countries, that's pretty unusual! In many places, real estate transactions are more impersonal; you deal with an agency, not a specific person. Here in the US, we like to put a face to the name. Getting to know the person helping you buy or sell a home feels more personal and trustworthy. It makes sense, right?

3
Our coins

Image: Shot by Cerqueira

Many of us don't even notice this until we travel abroad, but some of our coins don't actually show their value! Sure, you'll see words like "Five Cents," "One Cent," or even "One Dime," but there's no actual number printed on them. When you think about it, that's kind of strange, right? Especially when most countries display the value on their coins using numbers.

4
American flag everywhere

Image: camera obscura

In many countries, their national flag is used only for formal or official purposes, but that's not the case in the US. We tend to see the American flag literally everywhere, not just at official functions or holiday celebrations, but also on all kinds of products and imagery. From T-shirts and caps to food packaging and even swimsuits, our flag is a constant presence in everyday life.

5
No bad words on TV

Image: Kevin Woblick

If you're in America and turn on your TV right now, you'll find everything from romantic scenes to shows about zombies or violent crimes, but you'll rarely hear any bad language. Our television generally doesn't include insults or swear words, while in other countries they often do, even in shows that air during times when children might be watching.

6
Dinner before 8 PM

Image: Or Hakim

Depending on the region, dinner in the United States is often served before 8 p.m., and sometimes even before 7 p.m. But in many other countries, that's considered too early. In Latin America, for example, most people eat dinner between 8 and 11 p.m.!

7
The Imperial System

Image: Jarosław Kwoczała

We Americans use miles, feet, pounds, and degrees Fahrenheit, but this is often very confusing for visitors from other parts of the world. We are totally used to the Imperial System, but in most countries, the Metric System reigns supreme, with everything measured in meters, kilometers, kilograms, and degrees Celsius.

8
Big portions

Image: mafe estudio

Large portions are deeply ingrained in our daily lives. Whether it's restaurant meals, snack packs, or soft drinks, everything tends to be bigger in America. This can be surprising for foreigners who come here and order food, since in many other countries, dishes are smaller, and the custom of taking leftovers home after eating at a restaurant isn't as common as it is in the US.

9
Turkey pardon

Image: Tyler Donaghy

The pardoning of the turkey by the US president is a big event for many Americans. But in other parts of the world, where Thanksgiving isn't celebrated, it can come as a surprise. To foreigners, this formal ceremony involving a turkey might seem quite strange. Since Thanksgiving traditions aren't part of their history, this custom is uniquely American.

10
Alumni homecoming

Image: Carol Highsmith's America

Perhaps you've had the chance to participate in Homecoming, the annual event that celebrates university spirit with parties, sports games, and other activities for students returning to campus. While it's a big part of our college tradition and communities are deeply involved, it's quite different in other parts of the world, where the return to school usually happens with little fanfare.

History History 5 min read

What First Lady was accused of bigamy? 10 political crises

Image: EQRoy

From the founding era to the turn of the 21st century, political scandals have shaped public trust and dismantled entire careers. Looking back at ten of the most notorious political crises in American history reveals how the intersection of media and culture forces the nation to look in the mirror.

1
Rachel Jackson: A "Bigamy" scandal (1820s)

Image: L. Bernie Gallaher, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1791, a young Andrew Jackson married Rachel Donelson. Both believed her first husband, Captain Lewis Robards, had successfully finalized their divorce. Apparently, Robards didn’t file the petition, making her marriage to Jackson technically bigamous. Once the divorce went through in 1794, they officially remarried.

During the 1828 presidential campaign, Jackson’s political opponents used this legal mistake against him. They branded Rachel a loose woman and a bigamist in pamphlets scattered across the country. The intense public shaming broke her spirit and deteriorated her health. She suffered a fatal heart attack just days before Jackson’s inauguration, leaving the newly elected president heartbroken and extremely bitter toward his political rivals for the rest of his life.

2
Grover Cleveland’s illegitimate child (1884)

Image: Frank Beard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Decades later, another personal bombshell rocked another presidential race. Republican opponents revealed that Democratic nominee Grover Cleveland, a bachelor praised for his integrity, had fathered a child out of wedlock with a widow called Maria Halpin ten years before.

Republicans paraded through the streets chanting, "Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?" Instead of denying the affair or trying to bury it, Cleveland instructed his campaign managers to do something radical: "Tell the truth." He admitted to supporting the child financially. His honesty caught his opponents off guard and won over voters who were tired of such dirty political tactics.

3
The Crédit Mobilier scandal (1872)

Image: Joseph Keppler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This particular scandal stands as one of the most shameless corporate schemes of the Gilded Age. Stockholders of the Union Pacific Railroad formed a fraudulent construction company called Crédit Mobilier of America . Then, they hired themselves to build the transcontinental railroad at inflated prices, pocketing tens of millions of dollars in federal subsidies.

To prevent Congress from investigating their profit margins, Congressman Oakes Ames distributed discounted shares of the company’s stock to influential politicians, including Vice President Schuyler Colfax. When the press exposed the story in 1872, the revelation that lawmakers were bribing themselves tarnished the legacy of the Ulysses S. Grant administration.

4
The Whiskey Ring scandal (1875)

Image: Cornell University Library, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

A few years later, another financial disaster hit the Grant administration. The Whiskey Ring was a widespread conspiracy involving distillers, distributors, and internal federal tax officials who stole millions of dollars in liquor taxes.

Using a complex web of bribes and falsified records, the ring defrauded the U.S. Treasury. The scandal reached the inner circle of power when President Grant’s own private secretary, Orville Babcock, was indicted as a ringleader. Grant provided a deposition in his secretary’s defense. While this saved Babcock from prison, it permanently damaged the president’s reputation.

5
The Teapot Dome scandal (1920s)

Image: Boyd Norton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Until Watergate occurred, Teapot Dome was synonymous with political corruption. During the administration of Warren G. Harding, Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall took control of valuable federal oil reserves located at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, and Elk Hills, California.

Instead of opening these fields up for competitive bidding among energy companies, Fall secretly leased the drilling rights to private oil tycoons in exchange for more than $400,000 in bribes.

6
The Chappaquiddick incident (1969)

Image: United Press International, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

By the mid-20th century, the nature of political scandals shifted. Secrets began to involve personal crisis and tragic losses.

In July 1969, Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy drove his car off a narrow wooden bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. The vehicle overturned into a tidal pond, trapping and drowning his passenger, 28-year-old campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy managed to escape but failed to report the fatal accident to the police for ten hours. Although he eventually pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, his delayed reaction ended his lifelong presidential ambitions.

7
The Pentagon Papers (1971)

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In 1971, military analyst Daniel Ellsberg felt the moral obligation to leak a top-secret 7,000-page Department of Defense study detailing U.S. political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967.

Published by The New York Times , the papers exposed a disturbing truth: successive administrations had systematically lied to both Congress and the American public. The documents proved that the government had expanded the war and increased troop counts while knowing that the conflict was unwinnable. The Supreme Court eventually rejected the government’s attempts to block the leaks, making a victory for freedom of the press.

8
The Watergate scandal (1972–1974)

Image: National Archives & Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This is, probably, the ultimate American political scandal. In June 1972, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.

The break in itself was minor compared to the illegal cover-up orchestrated by President Richard Nixon and his collaborators. From paying hush money to instructing the CIA to block the FBI’s investigation, Nixon’s complicity was exposed via his own secret White House taping system. Facing impeachment and conviction by the Senate, Nixon became the first and only U.S. president to resign from office.

9
The "Keating Five" (Late 1980s)

Image: KonstantinChristian

During the Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s, five U.S. Senators—John McCain, Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, John Glenn, and Donald Riegle—came under intense scrutiny.

The group was accused of intervening with federal banking regulators on behalf of Charles Keating, the chairman of Lincoln Savings and Loan, who had contributed to their political campaigns. Lincoln eventually collapsed, costing American taxpayers over $3 billion. Although the Senate Ethics Committee ultimately cleared the senators of corruption, they were publicly condemned.

10
The Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair (1998)

Image: Clinton White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The 20th century ended with a scandal that blended personal infidelity with a constitutional crisis. In 1998, news broke that President Bill Clinton had an intimate relationship with a 21-year-old White House intern called Monica Lewinsky.

The affair turned into a legal battle when Clinton denied the relationship under oath during an unrelated sexual harassment lawsuit. The investigation led to Clinton’s impeachment by the House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. The Senate ultimately acquitted him, yet he couldn’t bypass the media circus.

History History 7 min read

America's most famous names

Bill Clinton wasn't born Bill Clinton—and that's just the start

Image: Cecil W. Stoughton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

What if we told you that Bill Clinton wasn't born "Bill Clinton"? Or that Harry S. Truman's famous middle initial didn't actually stand for anything? And would you believe Lyndon B. Johnson went three months without a name? We've known about America's presidents our entire lives, so it's easy to assume there's nothing left to learn about them. But behind some of the most familiar names in U.S. history are stories stranger than fiction. From accidental initials that lasted a lifetime to surnames that changed completely, here are 10 surprising stories behind the names of American presidents.

1
Bill Clinton

Image: National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Have you heard of Bill Blythe? Probably not, but you definitely know who he is: Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States.

Born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas, Clinton never knew his biological father, who passed away in a car accident three months before he was born. His mother, Virginia Cassidy Blythe, later married Roger Clinton Sr. At 15 years old, Bill chose to take the surname Clinton, adopting the name of the man who had raised him .

2
Lyndon B. Johnson

Image: Arnold Newman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Have you ever heard of a baby who went three months without a name ? As unusual as it sounds, one US president began life exactly that way.

The future Lyndon B. Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, near Stonewall, Texas. But instead of naming their newborn son, his parents found themselves in a standoff. According to historical records from the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, his mother, Rebekah Baines Johnson, wanted to name him Clarence, while his father, Sam Ealy Johnson, wanted the baby named after himself. Unable to agree, they left him officially unnamed, and for the first three months of his life, he was simply "Baby Boy Johnson." The deadlock finally ended when his mother gave in, and the future president was named Lyndon Baines Johnson , honoring Lyndon Baines, a family friend admired by his father.

3
Ulysses S. Grant

Image: Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The 18th president of the United States wasn't born with the name we all know. He was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio, as Hiram Ulysses Grant. So where did the famous "S." come from?

The answer is a paperwork mistake. In 1839, Ohio Congressman Thomas Hamer nominated the 17-year-old Grant to the US Military Academy at West Point. Knowing the young man went by Ulysses and that his mother's maiden name was Simpson, Hamer accidentally wrote "Ulysses S. Grant" on the nomination. Grant considered correcting the error, but eventually gave up, for two main reasons. He disliked the initials of his birth name, "H.U.G.", so the mistake didn't bother him much. In addition, fixing it would have meant a mountain of paperwork that could have jeopardized his appointment to West Point. So he simply let the new name stand, and the accidental middle initial stayed with him for the rest of his life.

4
Harry S. Truman

Image: Harris & Ewing, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Harry S. Truman may have one of the strangest stories on this list.

His first name, Harry, honored his maternal uncle, Harrison "Harry" Young. His middle initial, however, didn't actually stand for anything. Truman's parents chose the "S" to honor both of his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young, without choosing one name over the other. In other words, the "S" wasn't short for Shipp or Solomon; it was simply "S". Truman himself usually wrote it without a period, since it wasn't an abbreviation. But after he became president, his staff encouraged him to add the period in official correspondence because it looked more conventional. That's why today he's almost always remembered as Harry S. Truman.

5
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Image: National Archives at College Park, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

President Dwight D. Eisenhower is remembered for leading the nation through the Cold War and signing the Civil Rights Act of 1957. But there's one surprising detail about him that most people never hear.

The man we know as Dwight Eisenhower was actually born David Dwight Eisenhower on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas. Named after his father, David Jacob Eisenhower, he quickly ended up with a problem: there were now two Davids in the same household. To avoid the confusion, his mother, Ida, simply began calling her son Dwight instead. He went by his middle name as if it were his first for years, but the change didn't become official until he applied to West Point at age 20. Wanting his official records to match the name everyone already knew him by, he registered as Dwight David Eisenhower and made the switch permanent.

6
Gerald R. Ford

Image: Thomas J. O'Halloran, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On July 14, 1913, a baby boy named Leslie Lynch King Jr. was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and 61 years later, he became the 38th president of the United States. If the name doesn't sound familiar, there's a good reason: he entered the White House under a completely different name.

Leslie Lynch King Jr. was named after his father. However, just 16 days after his birth, his mother, Dorothy, fled the marriage with her infant son to escape her abusive husband. Three years later, she divorced King and married Gerald Rudolph Ford, a paint salesman who raised the boy as his own. From then on, everyone knew him as Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. , even though he didn't legally change his name until December 3, 1935, when he was 22 years old.

7
Ronald Reagan

Image: Michael Evans, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Have you ever heard of "Dutch" Reagan? Perhaps not, but that was in fact the childhood nickname of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States.

Born as Ronald Wilson Reagan on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan got his nickname from his father, who thought his newborn son looked like a "fat little Dutchman." The moniker stuck almost immediately. As a boy, Reagan embraced it so completely that, according to his autobiographies and records at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, he disliked being called Ronald and insisted everyone call him Dutch instead. That changed only after he arrived in Hollywood in the late 1930s, when studio executives convinced him that "Dutch Reagan" wasn't exactly leading-man material.

8
Jimmy Carter

Image: White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Born James Earl Carter Jr. on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, and named after his father, the future president had been called "Jimmy" almost from the day he was born.

Over the years, the nickname became the name he truly identified with. So when he took the presidential oath in 1977, Carter broke with tradition. Instead of using his formal first name like all the presidents, he was sworn in as Jimmy Carter, becoming the first (and still the only) US president to take the oath of office using a nickname rather than his legal name.

9
John Quincy Adams

Image: National Museum of American History, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The second president of the United States, John Adams, is one of the best-known Founding Fathers. His name is instantly recognizable to most Americans, and that's exactly why his son made an important decision about what he would be called.

John Quincy Adams was born on July 11, 1767, in the North Precinct of Braintree, Massachusetts, an area that was officially renamed Quincy in 1792. The nation's sixth president and the first son of a president to become president himself carried a name with a story. He was named not only after his father, but also after his maternal great-grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, who was gravely ill when the baby was born. Although Quincy was originally a family surname, it became the baby’s middle name. As an adult, he embraced all three names, John Quincy Adams, helping distinguish himself from his famous father while honoring both sides of his family.

10
Grover Cleveland

Image: National Archives at College Park, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Most people have never heard of Stephen Cleveland, but mention Grover Cleveland, and they'll know exactly who you're talking about. The thing is, they're the same person.

Born on March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey, the future 22nd and 24th president of the United States was actually named Stephen Grover Cleveland. His father, a Presbyterian minister, chose the name to honor Reverend Stephen Grover, the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Caldwell, where he was serving at the time. As he grew older, however, Cleveland made an unusual choice: instead of going by his first name, Stephen, he adopted his middle name because he simply liked the sound of "Grover Cleveland" better.

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