William Henry Herndon was a law partner and biographer of President Abraham Lincoln. They were a study in contrasts, opposites in temperament. Despite a poetic streak, Lincoln’s mind was logical, and he longed for the day when “reason, cold, calculating,
There was the “Clinton thumb”–which most likely originated with John F. Kennedy. Nixon’s “V for victory” at the helicopter door. Although he used it a few times before 1974. And the “Dole pen”–a prop he carried in his right hand.
When a possum is threatened, he contracts into a ball, while bears do the opposite. They stand on their hind legs to make themselves look bigger. Chameleons change color and remain perfectly still, while peacocks expand their tail-feathers to assert their dominance.