Inspired by this tweet from @JacalynLeake, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole to simpler presidential times, and thought I'd thread it here for anyone interested in Kennedy lore. https://twitter.com/JacalynLeake/status/1348185254675308544

It started with me wondering where the Bible JFK was sworn in on is these days. For those who don't know, there are several "famous" Bibles presidents can use (weather permitting) if they choose - the Lincoln and Washington Bibles are popular. There are others...

And, of course, you can bring your own. You can swear in on anything, be it the Torah, the Quran, the Bible, or a book that's not faith based at all. Law books and copies of the Constitution are common non-faith choices, but you can swear in on a newspaper if that's your thing.

Also for those who don't know, Catholic Bibles are different to Protestant ones. We have bonus chapters. So it's an important distinction to Catholics. Accordingly, JFK swore in on a family Bible, and as I was ruminating on whether it was somewhere Biden could borrow...

And suspecting not, I remembered why. There's a rumour that JFK's bible went missing after Dallas. I dug around a little in my Kennedy paraphernalia and found a conflicting account. A Catholic staffer (unnamed in what I have) said it was actually a *missal* JFK brought with him.

(A missal is a Catholic book of prayers. It's kind of like a supplementary text containing the readings for daily Mass + a bunch of general prayers. It *contains* scripture, but it's not a Bible. Since missals are meant to be carried with you, they're often pocket sized.)

The missal went to Dallas, was stolen by an unidentified man after LBJ was sworn in on it, and may or may not have ended up in the LBJ library - according to a variety of accounts. So I poked around a little more and found this photo of JFK with his missal.

Definitely missal sized to my eye. Hard to tell when the same book is under LBJ's massive paw in the much more famous shot, but here it's easier to tell scale. Just a neat little history find for a Sunday morning.

As for the Kennedy family bible Jack was actually sworn in on, I couldn't find anything on its whereabouts. Highly likely to be with the Kennedys, considering how weird people get about JFK artifacts, so it looks like Biden will have to bring his own. Sorry, Joe!