Daily Urban Legend

What most journalists and historians will fail to tell you is that Ronald Reagan gave himself the nickname “The Great Communicator.” He then informed his staff of his new nickname via memo. So, in case you were wondering what kind of dick gives himself his own nickname, this is it.

Speaking of Ronald Reagan and jelly beans, his aides knew his coherency was coming into question when Reagan started calling the FBI to have the red jelly beans blacklisted from the candy industry.

The truth is, Ronald Reagan didn’t actually like jellybeans. That whole jelly bean obsession was concocted by his press secretary during the 1980 campaign in order to cultivate a warm, grandfatherly persona for the voters. The truth was, more than one White House staffer has described the late president as “a cranky old dick.”

For the first few years of his administration, Reagan had his interns pick all of the red jelly beans out of the bag before being placed onto the jar on his desk. He didn’t want the presence of red jellybeans to give people the idea that he had communist sympathies.