8 Comments
User's avatar
Marianne van Pelt's avatar

What a fascinating post - thank you!

Expand full comment
Erin O'Connor's avatar

That you!

Expand full comment
Katherine O'Connor's avatar

What an intriguing and fascinating post.

These nuggets of history are that make us care about how historic figures became who they were. Real life is humbling and the “Greats’ all had their disappointments and failures that historic summaries forgive and delete.

Life comes down to being the summation of the trivia we lived through. We absorb and then become the culmination of all the little snags, the missed opportunities and glitches in life that make us unique. The details of living give the facts some soul and perspective.

Expand full comment
Erin O'Connor's avatar

I love the idea that life comes down to the sum of the trivia we lived through. I think it's easy to go through life thinking that meaning comes from someplace else, and that the Big Important People doing Big Important Events may have experienced life in a different way. And yet, when you get down to it, everyone is thinking about the same stuff and cramped in the same ways – toothache, heartache, housekeeping, keeping the peace, keeping the temper, getting on with it all in the best way we can.

Expand full comment
Clawmute's avatar

I, too, love history, and IMO you've done a wonderful service by posting this. So much to learn, so little time! Sigh!

So thank you a tonne!

Expand full comment
Erin O'Connor's avatar

thank you!

Expand full comment
Rebecca Rocket's avatar

Love this piece. Thanks for sharing these random tidbits! And now, I will never un-see poor Washington's distended mouth.

Expand full comment
Erin O'Connor's avatar

Thank you! And I, too, will never on see that poor man's miserable face the same way again.

Expand full comment