From the Little-Known History Department:

Besides Federal Hall, there’s one other place in New York City where a president took the oath of office: 123 Lexington Avenue, at 28th Street, where Chester A. Arthur was sworn in as president on September 20, 1881, after James A. Garfield was assassinated. (“Garfield had been shot in July by Charles J. Guiteau, a disgruntled job seeker, as your fifth-grade social studies teacher probably described him without saying what job would have made him gruntled.”)

You know what this means, right? Road trip! (Fine – subway trip.)

We’re finally halfway through.

Four years ago, I wrote:

“As I write this, we’re 28 hours and 20 minutes into the Bush II era. How is everything so far? Planet Earth: check. United States: check. Me: check. Charismatic presidential speechifying: well, I guess we can’t have everything. Still, maybe this won’t be so bad after all. Oh, the soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Boy, was I naive.