It is Trivial Pursuits for political anoraks time. Readers of this blog will know that I regularly illustrate entries about the European Economic and Social Committee’s ‘enlarged Presidency’ with a picture of William Howard Taft, who was easily the fattest ever President of the United States. Our guide today pointed to a statue of Taft’s father, Alphonso Taft, on Capitol Hill, declaring it to be the only statue of a non-President in Washington DC (I think). Alphonso Taft did indeed lead a distinguished career but in this post I want to concentrate on his son, who was distinctive for reasons apart from his weight. He served as the 27th President of the United States and, later, the 10th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court – the only individual to have held both positions. He was the first President to be buried at Arlington and one of only two (the other being JFK, of course). Oh, yes, and he was the last President to sport ‘facial hair’ (a walrus moustache).