Presidents and First Ladies Trivia

[RJNorton]

Good guesses, gentlemen, but it was neither Jefferson nor Hamiliton.

[Anita]

Benjamin Franklin

[Susan Higginbotham]

Lafayette.

[AussieMick]

Ha. Anita and Susan have gone for 2 that I was considering. But I'm fairly sure Lafayette is wrong.
I'll try George Washington.

[RJNorton]

Good guesses, Susan and Michael, but Anita is correct. Indeed it was Ben Franklin. Good job, Anita!

The quote is from a letter Abigail wrote to John Adams on November 5, 1775.

[David Lockmiller]

(01-20-2023 04:43 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Abigail Adams wrote the following about a man:

"I found him social, but not talkative, and when he spoke something useful dropped from his tongue; he was grave, yet pleasant, and affable."

She was writing about whom? (not her husband)

Franklin, completely smitten with Madame Helvetius, made a huge mistake when he brought two of the most proper (and puritan) people in the world, John and Abigail Adams, to meet her. John was shocked at the total lack of morality in every detail of the commune. But Abigail was traumatized about Madame Helvetius herself, writing, “After dinner she threw herself upon a settee where she shew (an archaic spelling of show) more than her feet."

Abigail Adams to Lucy Cranch, Auteuil, September 5, 1784

[Gene C]

Thanks David, that is interesting.
Maybe it was because of the time restraints of the class, but I was frequently disappointed with most of my history teachers that never brought up some of the these little interesting details that made the study of history interesting and fun. They rarely gave people of the past personality, they never made the connection with personal struggles and triumphs to our present day life. People of the past were just names in a book somehow attached to some great deed. They didn't seem very real.

Such as https://www.bartleby.com/400/prose/491.html
Kind of makes me want to read and learn more.
(which is what I think a good teacher does)

[Anita]

(01-22-2023 09:47 AM)Gene C Wrote:  Thanks David, that is interesting.
Maybe it was because of the time restraints of the class, but I was frequently disappointed with most of my history teachers that never brought up some of the these little interesting details that made the study of history interesting and fun. They rarely gave people of the past personality, they never made the connection with personal struggles and triumphs to our present day life. People of the past were just names in a book somehow attached to some great deed. They didn't seem very real.

Such as https://www.bartleby.com/400/prose/491.html
Kind of makes me want to read and learn more.
(which is what I think a good teacher does)

I agree with you Gene. When I read David's post I also wanted to know more.
I found this.

"Benjamin Franklin called Mme. Helvétius “Notre Dame d'Auteuil” and sometime between 1778 and 1780 proposed to her. Upon being rejected, he wrote a letter to her containing a parable in which he meets the late M. Helvétius and Deborah Franklin, who have married in the afterlife, prompting Franklin to renew his proposition. (“The Elysian Fields, M. Franklin to Madame Helvétius,” printed in Benjamin Franklin: Writings, ed. J. A. Leo Lemay, xixN.Y., 1987, p. 924–925. It is thought to be dated January 1780 by the editors of the Franklin Papers.)"
https://www.masshist.org/publications/ad.../AFC05fd12

[David Lockmiller]

Here is more "interesting and fun" history, Gene.

Letter from Abigail Adams to Lucy Cranch, Auteuil, September 5, 1784. In the letter, Abigail added how she liked Paris:

“You inquire of me how I like Paris? … One thing I know, and that is, that I have smelt it. If I was agreeably disappointed in London, I am as much disappointed in Paris. It is the very dirtiest place I ever saw.”

[RJNorton]

(01-24-2023 07:02 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  “You inquire of me how I like Paris? … One thing I know, and that is, that I have smelt it. If I was agreeably disappointed in London, I am as much disappointed in Paris. It is the very dirtiest place I ever saw.”

Speaking of disagreeable smells, here is something Benjamin Franklin wrote:

CLICK HERE.

[David Lockmiller]

In one episode of the Big Bang Theory, Penny met the guys in the hallway as they were going out for a kite-flying contest.

Penny: Hey, guys. What you doing? Going out to discover electricity?

Sheldon: If you're referring to the work of Benjamin Franklin, he did not discover electricity, he merely used a kite to determine that lightning consists of electricity. He also invented the Franklin stove, bifocals and the flexible urinary catheter. Kites, ho!

[Gene C]

(01-24-2023 09:01 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(01-24-2023 07:02 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  “You inquire of me how I like Paris? … One thing I know, and that is, that I have smelt it. If I was agreeably disappointed in London, I am as much disappointed in Paris. It is the very dirtiest place I ever saw.”

Speaking of disagreeable smells, here is something Benjamin Franklin wrote:

CLICK HERE.

Franklin was ahead of his time. If only he had written his essay about cows.

[RJNorton]

No googling please.

One of our Presidents feared premature burial. As he lay dying, he requested of the attending physician: "have me decently buried; and do not let my body be put into the vault in less than three days after I am dead. Do you understand me?"

Which President was this?

[Anita]

Garfield?

---

Actually in thinking about this, would it have been an early President like Washington due to fear of being buried while still alive?

[AussieMick]

Fear of premature burial was (is?) quite common. I recall reading that some people insisted on having some sort of contraption , such as a bell, that they could pull from within the coffin ... just in case.

Anyway ... I'll also say Washington.