i am washing laundry ~

[lookingland]

i am having macaroons for breakfast.

i am anxiously hoping to get a bazillion things done today (starting with laundry, as my title says).

aside from working on the book, i need to put in a good gaggle of hours on Jack, Eieison, and wretched, wretched homework (someone remind me why i am taking summer school?)

other than waiting for poore's transcipt, i've run out of excuses to not write, so i guess i better get to it (especially since i am far far behind at this point)! last night i made a mild comparison of Pitmann's transcript and the "peanut butter" one and there are significant differences:

1. Pitmann summarizes in a false witness voice, answering questions with complete sentences in order to present context while eliminating the questions (for the most part). i ain't saying Pitmann lies in terms of the essence of what got said, but it's clearly not verbatim.

2. Pitmann omits the best of all the squabbling between the prosecution and the defense. there seems to be tons of little kvetches that go on in the midst of testimony that are constantly being overruled (including some hilariously beliigerent witnesses). Pitmann only records the pertinent ones. most of the skirmishes are omitted.

3. the PB transcript gets bored toward the end of the trial and starts truncating and summarizing when it decides a witnesses's testimony is immaterial. this is especially amusing because it mirrors some of my own notes in my outline: i.e. "thomas eckert testifies today about absolutely nothing important."

i'm not going to wait for Poore's transcript to start writing (if i can even get it!). if i can read the transcript and, if there's anything especially exciting in it, i will use it in the rewrite. for now, however, i have more than enough to work with between Pitmann and the PB (if i were truly ambitious insane, i would go through the other newspaper transcripts, but i think most of them are associated press anyway and probably what ended up in the PB version.

random macabre fact (fun if you're into this sort of thing): two men who stopped Anna Surratt from seeing President Johnson to plead for clemency on the day of her mother's execution (and about whom she complained in a letter to Hanty later) killed themselves within the year. Preston King drowned himself and James Lane shot himself. i should temper this (lest i foment further conspiracy gibberish) by saying that both men were very troubled and had numerous problems outside of being party to thwarting the stay of execution. that doesn't, however, make it any less inneresting ~

picture of the day: Hanty's uniform coat (the one he wore on the day of the execution).



fond sigh ~ there are some things
i wish never went out of fashion
i have to add: it's kinda amazing that something like this managed to get handed down in such good condition after 140 years. but Hanty seems to have been a bit of a packrat judging by the papers and things he left behind (or perhaps his wife was).

okay, gotta git to work.

happy monday all!

: D

Comments

artifacts in good condition

[gwyn-hwyfar.livejournal.com]

I may have mentioned it before, but the most memorable thing I saw in the museum at Gettysburg is pieces of hardtack that were found on the field after the battle. They still looked semi-edible except for the numbers written on them :p

Re: artifacts in good condition

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

ooo yum.

like that stuff was edible when it was new ~ hahahahaha ~

: D

p.s. i recall seeing that hardtack too ~ though i think i was far more disturbed/fascinated by the displays of soldier's undergarments ~ first because they were, well, undergarments! and secondly because they were so dang wooly and itchy and i can't imagine anyone wearing anything like that under a wool coat at the height of heat in july!