LFL - and inappropriate giggling

[neadods]

For those following the Little Free Library saga, the second shelf held up to the snap storms we had last night. *And* the audiobook of White Fang/Call of the Wild had magically turned into audiobooks of Little Bee and Twenties Girl. (I snapped up that latter, being fond of that particular book.)

I also met one of my neighbors having a look inside it this morning as I headed out to work.

Speaking of work, I've been listening to Edward Herrmann reading McCullough's John Adams while I work, or trying to listen at least. The first problem is that it's abridged, and abridged books are an abomination unto Nuggan. The second problem is that I just hit a long section of quotes from Abigail Adams' letters where she's bitching at great length... about how hard it is to get pins.

Fans of 1776 will know why I started giggling.

Comments

[hildy.livejournal.com]

"We've gone from Framingham to Boston and we cannot find a pin...

Don't you know there's a war going on said the tradesmen with a grin..."

Ahem... *giggles* Almost as bad as the Thanksgiving when my Grandmother was discussing reading about the New Jersey militia in Revolutionary War and thinking "No, this is *not* the time for the whoring, drinking and New Brunswick quote".

[neadods.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think I'd quote that one in front of my grandmother either!

[signeh.livejournal.com]

Saltpeter!

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Sit down, John!

[melusinehr.livejournal.com]

I'm obnoxious and disliked!

[msdori.livejournal.com]

Done, madam. Done.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

"Because you neglected to tell us how saltpeter is made."

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

Don't recall the 1776 quote, but Abigail made considerable money by reselling the pins that John managed to send her. She was quite an entrepreneuse for a while there and resold stuff he sent her from his trip to Europe on American diplomatic business too. She'd tell him what to send and manage the whole business.

When she thought she was dying, two years before she did, she did something radical: she made a will. According to the law of the time, a married woman owned nothing and had nothing to leave to anybody. Her husband would have been within his rights to throw it in the fire and do whatever he wanted with "her" stuff, but John was a reasonably good guy. Didn't matter in the end because he outlived her.

Abigail Adams was also radical in keeping some of her money-- again, not legally hers-- secret from John and making better investments with it than he did.

Sorry to rattle on, but I recently read a good bio called Abigail Adams by Woody Holton.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

She was a very intelligent, very determined, very practical woman.