BRIDGET'S GUIDE TO THE GREAT, NOT-S0-GREAT AND DOWNRIGHT ABOMINABLE AMERICAN PRESIDENTS

3) THOMAS JEFFERSON

Best known for his role in writing the Declaration of Independence and for having his face on the nickel.

Jefferson was a well-rounded man of varying interests. He was a voracious reader owning 6,487 books, a musician, an astronomer, a paleontologist obsessed with mammoth fossils, an agriculturist, a wine snob, a food snob and an architecture snob.

He designed his own house in Charlottesville, Virginia, which he called Monticello(little mountain in Italian.

The good news: Jefferson did not believe in owning slaves. The bad news: Monticello was built by the slaves he owned. He bore five children with one of them, Sally Hemings.

He discovered vanilla ice cream in France and brought the recipe back to America.

Jefferson was the first president to shake the hands of his constituents rather than bowing to them, which gave him the reputation as a man of the people.

He wrote 18,000 letters but feared public speaking. He delivered his State of the Union address in writing.

He was a vegetarian or as close to it as you could get in the 1800s, favoring peas, lettuce and fruit over animal flesh.

He helped to invent the swivel chair.

He introduced the french fry to America!