Barb’s Burblings

One of the things I really like about volunteering at the National Museum of American History is when I can interact with history-geek kids. Like today, I was in the American Presidency exhibit. One of the pieces in the beginning of the exhibit is the coat Grover Cleveland wore to his inauguration. Now, a lot of people look at it and assume it’s Taft’s, because it’s a fairly sizable coat. I heard a little boy telling his mother he thought it was Taft’s, and I said that no, it was Cleveland’s–Taft was much bigger. The boy got excited and started talking about the bathtub they had to have made for Taft, and when I said that he could go to the National Archives and see a replica of the bathtub, his eyes positively lit up. It was awesome.

I also got to hear those magic words: “So, how are you with assassinations?” Very good. And it doesn’t sound nearly as messed up in context!

On a completely unrelated note, this afternoon I was watching television when I heard bagpipes. At first I thought it was on the tv (because why wouldn’t there be bagpipes at the O’s-Blue Jays game?), and then I saw, marching down the sidewalk, a bagpiper, followed by two drummers, then two or three random other people. I have no idea why this happened. I did see British, American, and Scottish flags hanging on a corner near my apartment, but that didn’t actually solve anything. (No signs.) Bizarre.