# data[].attributes.body
(195) “ In one of the more bizarre manifestations of the turn-of-the-century social Darwinism fad— which employed Darwin’s theory of evolution to argue that Anglo-Saxon culture was the fittest and there’d the best, a claim made on stomachs full of steak and kidney pie by men who never tasted the glory that is the taco— the Pan-Am appointed a ‘director of color’ who cooked up a thematic  scheme in which ‘primitive’ pursuits and society’s’ buildings were slathered with summery paint and ‘civilized’ advancements were pasted.”

I think this is bad writing. I absolutely hate when Vowell word vomits. I just feel so lost reading this. I guess I can kind of understand what she’s saying because she has to provide so much detail with everything she talks about. It’s hard not to understand what she is talking about because of the detail.

# data[].attributes.body
“And I mean that literally, God scared me stiff, what was the turning human beings in the salt and getting them swallowed up by whales, Plus the locus in the famines and, not least, making sure his own kid gets nailed to death onto wood.”

I think this is good writing because it’s easy to relate to. As a child, I was pushed into religion. I think a lot of kids experience this because of how popular religion is.  When I think about it I did the same. It’s weird realizing that other people also did this as a child and I like that Vowell decided to add that.

# data[].attributes.body
“ perhaps this is the approach of Dr. Mudd’s grandson Richard should’ve taken. Instead of spending his very long life pestering state legislators to pass reservations recognizing his grandfather’s innocence, if he really wanted to get the country behind his family name you should’ve recorded the hit song or come up with a dance craze or something” (102)

This reminds me of today’s world where people get canceled and everyone thinks they’re a bad person. They create an apology, cry in front of the camera, or avoid the media for a whole. Then they release some hit song, or getting a new movie, or visit a Make-A-Wish kid, and suddenly all of the bad things they’ve done are forgotten. It’s kind of crazy how even with the globalization we have today that people still get away with things. I can understand somewhat how Booths brother got away because he didn’t commit a crime, but he still became famous again. He doesn’t deserve to lose his whole career because of his brother but it is weird how people forget when they see someone do one good thing.

# data[].attributes.body
“The most famous thing ever said about president James A. Garfield is about how nobody had any idea who the hell he was.” (123)

This reminded me when we first started to read this story. We were talking about the presidents that were going to be brought up in the book and I had said some thing like, “We all know these presidents because they were assassinated.” And C responded with something like, “Well we don’t really know much about Garfield and the other one. Just Lincoln, he’s really the most famous one.” Being honest, I still don’t really know about the other two presidents, but one thing I do know is that Garfield was assassinated.

# data[].attributes.body
“ when Americans first heard of Czolgosz, they found comfort and his Z ridden name relieved that the President of the United States had been assassinated by a foreigner. But Czolgosz was born here.” (214)

This reminded me of just racial stereotypes. Obviously there will always be racism in our world, but there is less now then there has been in the past. I think America, especially, was very racist in the past but it’s the patriotic mindset that really gets me. The political parties split the country apart and everyone is against one another till something happens and they don’t want it to be their own people who caused the issue.

# data[].attributes.body
“Being searched and question by camo-clad armed soldier is disquieting enough if you are a small, meek white woman whose bag contains nothing more menacing than a Lemony Snicket marvel and cinnamon gum; but if you are the Arab-speaking cab driver who drives her there and you are ordered to get out of the car to open the hood, The sweat starts to spurt off your forehead as if your turban is wound out of a garden hose that just got turned on.” (49)

This is quite a weird comparison to say the least, but I do find it a little bit funny that she compared the Arabic man’s headpiece to a water hose. I like how vowel adds a little bit of humor in an awkward situation. Especially when someone gets profiled. Although it did seem like she was more scared than she should have considering she is a white woman.

# data[].attributes.body
“Thanks to the death mask, the visitor can see what Garfield’s family saw— a big man shrunk small.” (125)

Comparing Garfield to a big man shrinking small, I feel, is really sad especially because it was Garfield’s reality. His whole family  had to watch him die a slow death and become weaker and weaker. Vowell made this comparison to show us what his family experienced and went through.

# data[].attributes.body
“As i’m scrutinizing the plaque about Charlotte Scott, a black woman with white hair walks past, staring at me. Smiling, she yells, “Emancipation Proclamation!” She turns away with a wave, calling out over her shoulder, “Freed the slaves, amen!”” (119)

I think this is good writing although it’s random. I think it’s nice that she shows us that other people are patriotic towards dead presidents.

# data[].attributes.body
“And he kept Cuba under US protection and gave the right to intervene in Cuban affairs.  Which we did for the next half century reoccupy in the country every few years and propping up a series of dictators, crooks, and boobs.” (207)

I think this a good example of writing. Vowell knows that America likes to invade places and try to take control. It’s the colonizer in our blood. It’s good she adds humor because it is a sad topic, but you can still tell the issue. I do agree with Vowell when she says this due to the toxic culture in America, that we push onto others. Americans like to self sooth so it’s understandable why it’s so easy to pick up our habits.

# data[].attributes.body
“The way she lumps in Joseph Lister, the pioneer of anti-septic surgery, with her mother makes me wonder if she thinks of the specimens in the museum as her friends.” (99)

I think that Vowell wants the audience to see how people will connect to these old body parts. She does it as well, but I think she wanted us to see that she’s not the only one. She needed a friend.

# data[].attributes.body
“I think about Ida, the constant looping of her hook through the yarn, every time I play with my souvenir from the museum that I keep on my desk— the McKinley Memorial yo-yo” (192-193)

I think that Vowell is reminded of he yo-yo when talking about a crazy person because like Ida, she is crazy. She is obsessive about these as assassinations and has probably visited so many places and collected so many things. Maybe it’s the loop on the yo yo that reminds her of Ida, but I think it’s because of her fixation.

# data[].attributes.body
“ Sullivan is my favorite architect for the same reason Lincoln is my favorite president his buildings are logical but warm pragmatic but not without frippery grand and human all at once“ (244)

I like how Vowell’s favorite things are always based on something related to her fixation. Which also makes me like her a lot more. It’s her passion, and this is why I enjoyed reading this because it helps me see why it’s her passion. By seeing Vowell’s point of view I actually don’t mind reading. If this was just some textbook I’d get bored very quickly.

# data[].attributes.body
“I want to see mine in it too, but I’m Secretary of State Seward’s height— five foot four— so I have to jump up a foot to see my face in the mirror, which sets off an alarm” (114)

I this this is good writing. Vowell does add a bunch of unnecessary details, but I think the mirror being at exactly Lincoln's height is a cool fact. I like that she adds her own personal experience with her fun facts. It gives us even more facts by giving her experience as well.

# data[].attributes.body
“So I booked a ticket for Key West and went to the place where Mudd ate rancid meat if he ate it all, all while thinking of Christmas turkey, dreaming of dinner ham“ (66)

I don’t feel like this is bad but it definitely isn’t the greatest. It’s a weird detail to add that she would even want to go there. I guess that’s just a Vowell  being Vowell. She adds a lot of unnecessary details quite a lot which isn’t bad, but sometimes it’s a little much. It’s like she’s trying to hard.

# data[].attributes.body
246 “I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had linked arms with a woman in a burka and a Masai warrior, to belt out ‘It’s a small world After All’ flanked by a chorus line of nuns and field-tripping, rainbow skinned children.”

It’s obvious that Vowell is trying to describe the diversity, but I love how she words it. It shows how weird it is to see so many different types of people, even in America. We are known for being the mixing pot, but it’s still easy to dress alike and act the same when you’re surrounded by the same people. I think Vowell wanted us to realize it wasn’t just a mix of different races but different backgrounds and history in each person.

# data[].attributes.body
(218) “Emma Goldman claimed to abhor violence, and yet her speeches and writings are full of sympathetic odes to killers and would be killers, Czolgosz included.”

I think Vowell added this to tell us she doesn’t think that killing presidents are okay. As I read this book it seemed like Vowell was giving the killers sympathy by telling their side of the story. I think this is like clarification that she doesn’t like killers, but the history. Vowell also is kind of weird. If she said she liked killers or was a fangirl, I wouldn’t be surprised.

# data[].attributes.body
209 “I don’t know what surprised me more about this town and it’s statue— that McKinley could be fun or that anyone alive was thinking about him at all.”

I think this is good writing. Half of the book was about Lincoln, and the other two are kind of unknown. It’s good that Vowell addresses this for McKinley and Garfield. Especially because when people teach they forget to add small details. I think they do this because they get used to talking about the big parts of the story. Vowell tells us every part and what makes up each part and why.

# data[].attributes.body
“The sculpture intends to present a late 19th century version of a dignified classicism. But the first thing a present day visitor notices is that it’s exceedingly gay.” (178)

Why call it gay? I understand why, but other descriptive words would work just as well. Sometimes I think Vowell just says things like this to shock us. I think it works too. I definitely was zoned out reading before I realized. Vowell has been doing this the whole book so I’m not too surprised, but it does make me go back and reread.

# data[].attributes.body
“Guiteau fired off a letter to the White House describing secretary Blaine as a ‘wicked man’ “ 168

I cannot get enough of this man. How is someone like Guiteau writing a statement about Blaine being a wicked man when he killed someone out of selfishness?? It honestly just reminds me of a Karen. This guy doesn’t get what he wants and cries to the people in charge. News flash! They also don’t care. This guy just wants to throw a fit and get his way… he was way ahead of his time.

# data[].attributes.body
164 “Not that I was eavesdropping,” I say, “ but that is not Paul Revere, that as General Sherman.”

Vowell’s impulse control really is funny to me. I can’t tell if it’s because I’m reminded of myself or because it’s her reaction that makes it funny. I also feel like this is such a big part of her character and it’s so cute and quirky of her to do.

# data[].attributes.body
160 “It’s not the bullet that kills you, it’s the hole“

Vowell added this quote from Laurie Anderson while talking about how Garfield assassinated him. The doctors had killed Garfield from poking the wound, somehow Guiteau used this as his defense. Like it wasn’t his purpose to kill him. I think Vowell added this to show us that guns aren’t as bad, as long as someone like Guiteau doesn’t have one. I do remember Vowell not being fond of guns from her article On Shooting Dad, but maybe she decided it’s the laws that need to be stricter.

# data[].attributes.body
149 “ One impulse Guiteau shared with his Oneida fellows was yearning to be a part of the group to commune. Even his most deliriously selfish act— overturning the will of the electorate by shooting the president— was conceived and executed as a tribute to the stalwart faction within the Republican Party”

This reminded me of today’s world where we have things like school shootings. People feel so alone and out casted they feel by doing this horrible act it’ll make them, I dunno, feel better? it’s like they think they’re redeeming some thing that they deserve or lost by making other people suffer. It’s completely a mystery to me why people really want to commit shootings, especially school shootings. Which is why I’m so confused that Guiteau would shoot up the sex commune. Then to tribute it to the stalwart faction is just honestly a sorry excuse. We all know it’s because no one wanted to have sex with him. This also reminds me of post shooters in the interrogation room, claiming they’re insane or someone else made them do it when it was just their selfishness that drove them to do it.

# data[].attributes.body
142-143 “Notes broke down the sex act into three parts— the beginning, marked by ‘the simple presence of the male organ in the female,’ the middle, involving ‘a series of reciprocal motions,’ and of course the end, an ‘ejakulatory crisis which expels the seed.’”

Aren’t people supposed to be more religious in this time? This whole idea of a sex group is crazy, even know it’s weird. Although it is common to have sex out of pleasure rather then only trying to conceive. I think it’s funny that the last thing people want is to have kids. This was way ahead of its time but also very weird. It makes me wonder what people did that wasn’t documented.

# data[].attributes.body
"Emma Goldman, anarchist Russian Jewish advocate of free love and birth control sounds exactly like pretty boy white supremacist murderer John Wilkes Booth." (89)

Vowell is a very humorous person so seeing her use sarcasm is not a surprise. I like how she calls Booth A pretty boy but is a supremacist murderer, and when talking about Goldman, she is an advocate for love and birth control but is a Russian Jew. I’m glad she makes this comparison to set them apart. Not because they’re both different people but because they’re on different sides of political parties.

# data[].attributes.body
"However, displayed right along side all the Confederate flag paraphernalia is a bunch of American flag merch-- American flag place mats, patriotic "body crystals," flag you attach to your skin." (87)

I was vowel trying to add some irony in saying this? I definitely think it’s funny to see any confederate flag considering it’s past, but I don’t think people really cared about confederate flags until a few years ago. I do know that Vowell, of course, knows about the past of the confederate flag and what it means. I think she’s just making fun of the American flag, but not really the American flag, just the people who go crazy with it.

# data[].attributes.body
"My father has a thing for cannons, so I ask Mike that he ought to take my picture next to it" (77)

I really like how vowel included this because of her article that we read previously, on shooting dad. I think it gives good insight to her character and I think it’s quite she thought of her father, even though they have all of their disputes. It makes me wonder if the vowel is more politically right. When she wrote the article, vowel was more left, and she stood up for what she believed for, but now she is more interested in history. It just makes me wonder if she maybe has rethought her political stance not that it matters, but it seems to be a big part of herself.

# data[].attributes.body
(44-45) “ I told her that Rathbone never fully recovered; that he was actually blamed for not stopping booth but he went slowly insane; that Clara married him anyways and had his children; that when Henry insisted on moving to Germany, she agreed hoping the change would do him good; that crazy Henry shot and killed Clara in Germany just his booth had shot Lincoln; that he would have killed their children to if a nanny hadn’t stopped him; that by the way one of those kids lived to become The congressman from Illinois who in 1926 introduce the bill the bill to purchase the collection of artifacts in the Ford theaters Lincoln museum; that Henry was committed to a German insane asylum, which is where he died; and that they don’t really put up plaques about things like that, though Thomas Mellon did write a good novel on the subject called Henry and Clara.”

This is the response that Vowell has to a receptionist asking her about Rathbone, the person who was with Lincoln when he was assassinated. It’s definitely an interesting response and to add it into the book is a weird style of writing. Vowell is cramming half of this man’s life into one sentence and managed to get someone interested enough to read a book, but it’s as if she is trying to get the reader to get interested in what seems like word vomit. Vowell does this a lot where she just says a bunch of things in one sentence or one paragraph and you’re just kind of slammed with all this information. It’s definitely an interesting Way to go about things because I don’t know if I like it or hate it. Honestly, I don’t even think I mind it, but when I pay attention to  it, even if it’s not really that hard to catch, it’s kind of annoying.

# data[].attributes.body
"Only Williams McKinley's best friend!" Surprisingly, this info also bombs."

One thing that keeps me interested in this book is Vowell's humor and quirkiness. Vowell's comments about herself along with her awareness are very funny to me. I find myself doing the same thing with the weird things that I like. I feel like I can really relate to Vowell and it keeps me reading. Her approach to different stories and topics is captivating and I think it’s cool.

# data[].attributes.body
"(32) I can Theoretically grasp that a person might not get excited about a two-dimensional engraving attached to a government building marking the spot where the man who negotiated the purchase of Alaska was knifed by a friend of John Wilkes Booth. But this person? "

The reaction that Vowell has to her friend's reaction to her obsession seemed to have her questioning him, but understands why. Why does she not understand why her friend doesn’t care, and why does she care about him not caring? It’s definitely weird to add into the book considering she doesn’t really care what other people think.

# data[].attributes.body
"Going to Ford's Theater for the play is like going to Hooters for the food."

I find it funny that Vowell compares her obsession with assassinations of presidents to men and their desire for a young woman serving them food while they watch football and drink beer. I think Vowell’s is still more humiliating considering it’s all she thinks about.. like an old drunk. I think I’d see lot of older men at a hooters, but I’ve never actually been.

# data[].attributes.body
„But the main thing that surprised me was how romantic Assassins was.“ (4)

The more I read this quote the more I'm convinced this girl romanticizes assassins. I’m not one to fan girl over serial killers, but I completely understand romanticizing things. why? because it makes me 10 times more interested in something. When I can hyper-fixate on something, I’m going to be much more immersed. I just don’t see Vowell’s reason for making someone who committed treason with premeditated murder look anything more than the killer they are. Why is there a need to play devil's advocate for the assassins, what does that process of thinking give Vowell?

# data[].attributes.body
„Abraham Lincoln’s oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, was in close proximity to all three murders like some kind of jinxed Zelig of doom”

Robert is an analogy to death. He is always close when death is near. He was even compared to a Zelig, an ordinary, unimportant person, who seems to turn up in a variety of settings. He is always lurking like death and seem to jinx all the presidents around.

# data[].attributes.body
„John Wilkes Booth deserves some of the credit— a notion that would make the assassin want to throw up. After all, if no one hated Lincoln, there would be no Lincoln memorial to love.“ (18)

Sarah Vowell is telling the audience that there is always a reason for a assignation, but without the assassination we might not remember them. Vowell is saying this to raise eyebrows because who doesn’t love honest Abe? He helped free the slaves and guided the country during a civil war. I think the shock factor is a way Vowell is trying to pull me and other readers in. Having that opposing idea with more then enough information to back it makes people valid to be different by having a positive opinion about a bad person.