The Two Dollar Bill
DALLAS, Texas — Thomas Jefferson is usually known as a founding father, author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States. He rarely gets any press for being on the two-dollar bill.
But last week, his face got a lot of it after Heritage Auctions sold a $2 note from 2003 with a low serial number for $2,400, which was later resold for $4,000.
wfaa.com
Liberated images from the Wikipedia Two Dollar page…
James the Second Best
James the Second Best is the twenty-seventh episode of the tenth series [of Thomas the Tank Engine].
One morning, the Fat Controller comes to Tidmouth Sheds with a photographer, declaring there will be a railway poster, and he needs an engine to be on it. James is confident that he will be on the poster, as he is a splendid engine, but the Fat Controller chooses Edward, who is delighted. James cannot believe it, so while the photographer prepares his camera, James pulls in front of Edward. The Fat Controller then sternly orders James to leave the sheds, to James’ dismay.
ttte.fandom.com
James the Second
(not to be confused with James the Second Best)
James VII and II (14 October 1633 O.S. – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland. His reign is now remembered primarily for conflicts over religious tolerance, but it also involved struggles over the principles of absolutism and the divine right of kings. His deposition ended a century of political and civil strife in England by confirming the primacy of the English Parliament over the Crown.
Wikipedia
Did the Royal Portraitist do a little cut-‘n-paste?
But it gets a lot more interesting….
James’s wife was devoted to him and influenced many of his decisions. Even so, he kept mistresses, including Arabella Churchill and Catherine Sedley, and was reputed to be “the most unguarded ogler of his time”. Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that James “did eye my wife mightily”. James’s taste in women was often maligned, with Gilbert Burnet famously remarking that James’s mistresses must have been “given [to] him by his priests as a penance”.
Wikipedia
Penance #1 : Arabella Churchill
Penance #2 : Catherine Sedley
Not to get too TMZ, but if you want the scoop, check out Tatler’s The most influential Royal Mistresses throughout history.
Let’s do The Vulcan Mind Meld and Stir the Royal Pot…
And more on the monkey business in this Goodreads Review of The Countess and the King by Susan Holloway Scott.
Honourable Mention
One reply on “Celebrating Second”
I love it all! It definitely resonates with me as second-born, and a second girl to a father who really wanted a son. When I was born and he got the call in the middle of the night, he turned over and went back to sleep. But a couple of years later, when my brother was born, he jumped up and sped down to the hospital to view his son, who after a difficult delivery was a “blue baby.” Nevertheless, he survived and grew up to be a successful geophysicist.