Cool, I had no idea that was a real tradition.
With respect to Emh, it absolutely amazes me when I encounter Americans here (TrekBBS and California) who don't know a lot about the Presidency, American history, or government. Granted, I'm not saying I'm some expert, and granted, maybe it was just a bigger deal growing up in D.C. for me, but this is the kind of thing that we learned about all the time as kids, in addition to where the V-P lives, what the National Mall is, why no buildings in the District are taller than the Washington Monument, etc.
Again, not pointing fingers at you Emh, this is just me thinking out loud.
To be fair, the fact that each outgoing president writes a letter to his successor -- typically including advise, words of wisdom, etc -- and leaves it on the Resolute desk in the Oval Office for the next president to find.... while it's really interesting, I think, it's also fairly obscure. Not knowing about the letter tradition is not exactly akin to not knowing that the president is elected by the electoral college or that his term starts on 20 January.
And I'd bet you good money that most Americans don't know that the official residence of the Vice President is at Number One Observatory Circle -- in part because it's only been the official residence for a little over thirty years.
