I know, I've seen the scythe in its sheath

[sovay]

I was mistaken for an academic this afternoon at the bookstore which made me want to go home and shoot myself in the head, but when I actually got home a package of white chocolate and lemon Milanos was waiting for me from selkie and I managed to get a picture before the rain started of the previously mentioned neighborhood decoration.



Every single review I have encountered so far of Death by Lightning (2025) has proceeded from the assumption that the reader and by extension the viewer has never heard of Charles Guiteau and only vaguely, perhaps dutifully of President James Garfield and I just don't think Sondheim fans are that thin on the ground. At least it should popularize this particularly indelible fact.

Comments

[moon_custafer]

I first read of Guiteau in Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation.

[sovay]

I first read of Guiteau in Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation.

That counts too! I just have difficulty thinking of him as totally, pop-culturally obscure. Like without Sondheim it might have taken me longer to hear of Giuseppe Zangara because he did not actually manage to shoot FDR, but the list of successful presidential assassins is quite short and Guiteau is on it.

[minoanmiss]

Ow ow my sides hurt from giggling

[lauradi7dw]

I love everything in Assassination Vacation but think I first encountered Guiteau on American Experience.

I like the (apocryphal?) quote from Guiteau to a reporter who asked why he killed Garfield. He said that he shot Garfield, but it was the doctors who killed him. Pretty much the case.

[selkie]

My dear, your academic bona fides are unquestionable assuming you *checks notes* opened your yap.
One can keep up with the big dogs even if one is not fully funded for seven years to write a book that is really a monograph that is really just a chonky bibliographic compendium. One has just learned one is, in fact, sort of a medium dog.
I am glad the cookies landed and I hope you enjoy them.

[sovay]

Ow ow my sides hurt from giggling

All right, I feel justified in my day.

[davidgillon]

That skeleton is definitely something else. I'm not sure what, but definitely something.

[sovay]

My dear, your academic bona fides are unquestionable assuming you *checks notes* opened your yap.

My academic bona fides are generously twenty years out of date while my suicidal ideation is still up to the minute!

One can keep up with the big dogs even if one is not fully funded for seven years to write a book that is really a monograph that is really just a chonky bibliographic compendium. One has just learned one is, in fact, sort of a medium dog.

We should be fully funded for seven years. I realize I sound as though I am advocating for grants in Faerie, but I think our chances there are better.

I am glad the cookies landed and I hope you enjoy them.

I ate two instantaneously. Could be lemonier, but I grew up on the East 62nd Street cake.

*hugs*

[sovay]

That skeleton is definitely something else. I'm not sure what, but definitely something.

I am not often stopped in the street by Halloween decorations, but I couldn't just walk past!

[sovay]

I love everything in Assassination Vacation but think I first encountered Guiteau on American Experience.

Neat! I have been aware of American Experience since childhood and due to my relationship with television almost never watched any of it.

I like the (apocryphal?) quote from Guiteau to a reporter who asked why he killed Garfield. He said that he shot Garfield, but it was the doctors who killed him. Pretty much the case.

Yeah, fair.

[mrissa]

I am always nervous of works of art where everyone around them seems to have the idea that their topic is impenetrably obscure but don't worry! it'll all be explained! I'm going to try anyway but it leaves me with tempered explanations about how much annoying hand-holding there will be.

[sovay]

I'm going to try anyway but it leaves me with tempered explanations about how much annoying hand-holding there will be.

I will await your report. It has a fantastic cast and I have not at all been able to tell whether I want to burn my media processing on it.

[asakiyume]

I hadn't heard the ballad, but I thought it was excellent, especially the line "The Lord's my employer and now he's my lawyer," heh.

[sovay]

I hadn't heard the ballad, but I thought it was excellent, especially the line "The Lord's my employer and now he's my lawyer," heh.

I don't have a favorite Sondheim musical, but I am really fond of Assassins. "The Ballad of Czolgosz" is extremely catchy and often in my head.

[ladymondegreen]

What happened to Garfield is pure body horror. Thank all that is good and holy that hand washing and germ theory caught on.

[ladymondegreen]

I still use "The Gun Song" as a vocal warmup. It's definitely one of the musicals I impressed on in high school and was in regular rotation along with Phil Ochs' There and Now: Live in Vancouver which has similar themes.

[thisbluespirit]

Ha, well captured! XD

[sovay]

It's definitely one of the musicals I impressed on in high school and was in regular rotation along with Phil Ochs' There and Now: Live in Vancouver which has similar themes.

That was the first Phil Ochs album I ever owned. Its version of "Crucifixion" still frightens me.

[sovay]

Ha, well captured!

Thank you! You see why I had to share.

[sovay]

Thank all that is good and holy that hand washing and germ theory caught on.

Just so long as we can keep it.