11 fascinating facts about America's presidents and the White House

From napping to grocery bills

Ronald Reagan
(Image credit: Bettmann/CORBIS)

It must have creeped Abraham Lincoln out.

There he was, at Ford's Theatre enjoying a play, when the lead actor, in character, came very close to the president (Lincoln was sitting at stage level) and began wagging his finger angrily at him. After it happened a second time, and then a third, a woman who was with the president said, "Mr. Lincoln, he looks as if he meant that for you." "Well," Lincoln replied, "he does look pretty sharp at me, doesn't he?'"

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Paul Brandus

An award-winning member of the White House press corps, Paul Brandus founded WestWingReports.com (@WestWingReport) and provides reports for media outlets around the United States and overseas. His career spans network television, Wall Street, and several years as a foreign correspondent based in Moscow, where he covered the collapse of the Soviet Union for NBC Radio and the award-winning business and economics program Marketplace. He has traveled to 53 countries on five continents and has reported from, among other places, Iraq, Chechnya, China, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.