DOTD For Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Today's Drink Of The Day Is For The Effin' Birds
Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is a Potted Parrot Cocktail inspired by Poll, Andrew Jackson’s parrot, who, apparently, swore. Now, neither Shawn or Jody like Pres. Jackson, for obvious reasons, but gotta love his parrot! Some might even say today’s DOTD is for the Effin’ Birds, though our friend Carolyn Fiddler assures us that’s something completely different (and better).
Andrew Jackson’s Profane Parrot
While Donald Trump is clearly the worst president in U.S. history, Andrew Jackson is definitely a close second.
Like Trump, Jackson was a racist, a misogynist, and a bigot. Also like Trump, Jackson was volatile & vengeful, and weaponized the federal government against his perceived enemies. Jackson was also massively corrupt, and favored violence & cruelty, like Trump. The two men were even alike in their responsibility for mass casualties - Trump’s through mismanagement of a pandemic, destruction of USAID, and unnecessary military actions in Afghanistan & Iran; Jackson’s through the infamous state-sponsored forced march & relocation of Native Americans, which culminated in the Trail of Tears.
So both men have caused a great deal of swearing by good Americans.
But unlike Trump, Jackson had a pet. Even birds can’t stand Donald Trump.
Marsha Mullin, the authority on all things Andrew Jackson at The Hermitage, the home of the seventh president, directed historian and writer Mark Cheathem to writings confirming the unique story that President Andrew Jackson’s pet parrot started uttering obscenities during the former president’s own funeral and had to be removed. Jackson bought Poll, an African grey parrot, for his wife, Rachel, but took care of the bird himself after she died, up until his own death.
According to the records of the Rev. William Menefee Norment - found in Volume 3 of Samuel G. Heiskell’s Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History - as Norment was presiding at the service, he reports a bit of chaos occurred at Jackson’s funeral service:
“Before the sermon and while the crowd was gathering, a wicked parrot that was a household pet [of Jacksons’] got excited and commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house.”
The Rev. Norment goes on to report that the presidential parrot was “excited by the multitude and … let loose perfect gusts of ‘cuss words.’” Norment also noted, “The Negro slaves of the General were horrified and awed at the bird’s lack of reverence.”
The last quotation is interesting for more than just Poll’s swearing. Norment’s claim that the slaves’ “wailing” set off Poll’s blue streak, and that the slaves were “horrified and awed” by the parrot’s “lack of reverence” presents a view of slaves as being more pious than their southern slave owners. That’s an interesting perspective, but it isn’t surprising. White views of African Americans were complicated during and after slavery, and in many cases, remain so today.
Mark Smith‘s How Race Is Made: Slavery, Segregation, and the Senses (2006) offers the simple, yet powerful, argument that southern whites of that time viewed African Americans as dirty and loathsome, at the same time that they allowed them in their homes as servants and nannies or, in the case of some white masters and slave women, had sex with them. The same dichotomy holds true for African American morality and religion: Whites believed slaves practiced a heathen African religion (not religions), yet they also thought slaves often possessed a spirituality that gave them greater moral insight and wisdom than their white Christian masters.
In the case of Jackson’s funeral, the perception of Rev. Norment is that Jackson’s slaves were appalled by his parrot Poll’s language, which the bird presumably learned from Jackson or other whites on the plantation, because the slaves were too moral to have used that language themselves.
Parrots are highly intelligent birds that can live to be 75 years old, and are known for their ability to learn words and to mimic other sounds they hear, including phones ringing and babies crying. While parrots can mimic speech, they don’t technically talk, as they don’t have vocal cords, but instead produce sounds by pushing air out of their tracheas.
Scientists now confirm that parrots, in general, possess cognitive abilities and problem-solving skills rivaling those of a 3- to 5-year-old human child. They exhibit abstract reasoning, emotional complexity, tool use, and the unique ability to understand and use human speech to communicate with humans.
For what it’s worth, Jackson - also known as “Old Hickory” - was far tougher than Trump. Not only was Jackson a war hero - no bone spurs there - but when a man tried to shoot him at a speaking engagement and the gun misfired, President Jackson, 67 at the time, beat the would-be assassin almost senseless with his walking stick.
Jackson outfitted the White House with a dozen spittoons, fought duels, and was the first president to open the White House for public visits. So it seems natural that his language might have been kind of, um, salty — but what did his parrot say exactly? No one seems to $%¢&ing know.
Other U.S. Presidents Who Have Had Pet Birds
Andrew Jackson wasn’t the only American president to have a bird as a pet. The long list includes:
George Washington’s wife had a parrot
Thomas Jefferson had a mockingbird named Dick
James Madison’s wife kept a macaw
For a short time, John Tyler had a canary named Johnny Ty
Franklin Pierce owned two Japanese birds
James Buchanan is said to have had a pair of bald eagles
Abraham Lincoln’s son Tad had a turkey named Jack
Ulysses S. Grant reportedly also had a parrot
Rutherford B. Hayes apparently had a mockingbird and four canaries
Grover Cleveland’s wife had mockingbirds and canaries too
William McKinley had a Mexican parrot named Washington Post
Teddy Roosevelt had a couple of parrots, and his son had a pet macaw
Woodrow Wilson kept songbirds
Warren Harding’s wife, Florence, had canaries
Calvin Coolidge’s pet canaries were named Nip and Tuck; plus Coolidge had a white canary named Snowflake and a mockingbird
For a short time, Dwight Eisenhower had a parakeet Gabby, buried in 1957 at the southwest corner of the executive mansion
John F. Kennedy had a canary named Robin and two parakeets named Bluebell and Marybelle
Lyndon Johnson had lovebirds
While it’s been nearly 50 years since a pet bird called the White House home, there likely isn’t a decent American who hasn’t thrown a bird finger - or thought about doing it - towards Donald Trump. So maybe that counts for something.
Either way, in the spirit of birds and profanity, we give you today’s Drink Of The Day, a Potted Parrot Cocktail,
Ingredients
Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink:
