“Do you bite your thumb at me, Sir?”

This is the kind of anecdote I totally adore. Like the one where Alexander Hamilton dares someone to walk up to George Washington and throw his arm around him in a chummy way. You just did not do that with Washington. The image of Revolutionary War heroes standing around at some tavern playing “I double-dog dare you” games is just so pleasing and funny to me. But here’s a good one, too. This is from James Monroe: The American Presidents Series: The 5th President, 1817-1825, by Gary Hart:

Despite the relative social quiet of the Monroe White House, it was not without a little drama. The story is told of a ministerial dinner at which the British minister Sir Charles Vaughan saw the French minister Count de Serurier, directly across from him, bite his thumb every time Vaughan made a remark. “Do you bite your thumb at me, Sir?” Vaughan finally challenged. “I do,” was the Frenchman’s reply. They promptly withdrew and were at sword points in an adjoining hall when President Monroe arrived and threw up their swords with his own. Their carriages were called, and Monroe sent them, separately, away.