I love researching!

[Rob Wick]

I've learned that research is fun, but writing isn't.

I've also learned that having Ida Tarbell's letters in a digitized format is wonderful, but I've gone through about a dozen ink cartridges in printing out her letters and I've got about 20 more years to go.

I've learned that Ida Tarbell isn't the first woman who wrote a biography of Abraham Lincoln. That award goes to The Rev. Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford who in 1865 wrote Abraham Lincoln: His Life and Public Services. So why did Tarbell's survive and Hanaford's didn't? Well, partly because Hanaford's was, let us say, barnyardish in odor while Tarbell's had merit.

For me, research is like sinking a 30 foot putt after playing a completely crappy round of golf. It's that one moment that you do something magical that makes all those hours alone and enmeshed in mind-numbing work all worth it.

Best
Rob