Various readers have leapt to the defense of a favorite. Sample:
Sir — You’re right to take issue with Mr. Brookhiser. As a Buckeye, I especially take exception to the mention of James Garfield. True, his Presidential portrait is not impressive, but he was considered to be a fine-looking man when younger. Check out the picture of him in uniform here.
In fact, Garfield was quite the ladies’ man. He had a well-known affair during the Civil War that almost wrecked his marriage. Unlike a lot of the “Civil War Presidents,” he was a good soldier at a relatively high rank. It’s unfortunate that an assassin ended his Presidency very early. All in all, one of those historical figures who becomes more interesting the more you find out about him. True, he belongs in “those bearded guys between Lincoln and T. Roosevelt” (most of whom were from Ohio), but he’s worth knowing about.
He’s also an answer to a good trivia question: “Who is the only Representative to have been directly elected President of the United States?”
And something particularly for you: “In 1876, Garfield discovered a novel proof, of the Pythagorean Theorem using a trapezoid while serving as a member of the House of Representatives.”
[Me] If memory serves, we also have Garfield to thank, indirectly, for the invention of air conditioning. He was lying in the White House dying of his wound in the heat of summer, and the U.S. Navy was charged with the task of finding a way to keep him cool …