President-elect Barack Obama called Nancy Reagan to apologize for his joke about seances. But that's not the only former first lady he dissed.
During his first press conference on Friday, Obama grinned and said "I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any seances."
In fact, the 87-year-old former first lady met with astrologers during her husband's time in office though she never held conversations with the dead. It was Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of our 16th President Abraham Lincoln, who held at least eight seances in the White House hoping to make contact with her two sons, Eddie and Willie, who died in childhood.
Likewise, Jane Pierce, wife of 14th president Franklin Pierce, also participated in seances to communicate with her son, Bennie, who was killed in a train wreck right before his horrified parents.
Thus concludes today's history lesson. There will not be a test.