Two Prickly Pears

 

The age-old riddle (139 years old) is, “Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?” The obvious answer is, of course, Ulysses S. Grant. The correct answer is nobody. Grant and his wife Julie are laid to rest in the mausoleum, but as neither sarcophagus is underground, no one’s buried there. Ulysses S. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant in 1822. When he applied to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1839, a clerical error changed his name to Ulysses S. (Grant said he’d actually intended to change his name to Ulysses Hiram Grant, to avoid the initials H.U.G.) So, President Grant’s middle initial S doesn’t stand for anything at all. He’s not the only U.S. president with this odd condition. When Harry S. Truman was born, half the family hoped he’d be named Solomon for his maternal grandfather. The other half wanted Shipp for his paternal grandfather. Truman’s S is there to keep the peace.