Last Friday, I finished my third book of the year, Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation. She packs this quick and enjoyable read with information, anecdotes and asides about her obsession with assassinated presidents and their assassins that inspired her "vacation".

Because we're in the middle of Blog Sweeps Week, here is a simple game that you (or your inner-child, age five and up) can play. I'll call it The President-Assassin Matchmaker, primarily because I can't think of a cute or clever name for it. Actually, with the number of times I've used the word assassin, this entry will probably pop up on some federal agency's radar, so it might be better to call this Match the Bunny Rabbit. The answers are at the end of this entry.

A. Abraham Lincoln (1865)
B. James Garfield (1881)
C. William McKinley (1901)
D. John F Kennedy (1963) [not in the book, but added anyway]

1. Leon Czolgosz
2. Charles Guiteau
3. Lee Harvey Oswald
4. John Wilkes Booth

From her writing, one can tell that Vowell is enthusiastic about her subject, unabashedly tossing in facts and details that typical people would discard as extraneous trivia, but fellow enthusiasts and those with any sense of curiosity would happily soak up like a sponge. She has a way of blending her knowledge of history with humor and pop culture references that I find appealing.

1. Stephen Sondheim wrote a musical called Assassins. It ran from December 1990 to February 1991. I can only imagine how disturbing it would be to watch actors portraying presidential assassins sing and dance. Would I want to see it? I don't think so, unless I was in one morbid mood.
2. Vowell loves plaques. I must admit to being fond of them, too. I like that they kindly remind us that an important event transpired or a significant building once stood on the very spot where we're standing. Whenever I spot one, I can't help but stop and read it. Plaques are more than markers. They're time traveling devices. I know it's dorky, but maybe one day I'll make a Top 5 list of favorite plaques.
3. The Robert Todd Lincoln (a.k.a. Angel of Death) Link. Lincoln's son stood at his father's deathbed, witnessed Garfield's assassination as his Secretary of War and detrained at the station where McKinley was shot only moments before. If I were a president back then and could connect the dots, I would make sure the man stayed as far away from me as possible.
4. The Story of Theodore Roosevelt's Assassination Attempt. His would-be assassin shot him at close range, but a fortuitously placed steel eyeglass case and folded campaign speech in his chest pocket slowed the bullet. He defiantly declared, "You see, it takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose." He then went on to deliver the speech before rushing to the hospital to remove the bullet.
5. Vowell's religion is American democracy. In the book, she states that she doesn't believe in God, but she believes in our nation's system of government. She doesn't worship at any church, but regularly visits the Lincoln Memorial. Her journey to various historic sites isn't a road trip, but a pilgrimage. And she frankly states that our latest president has shaken her faith.

As a tangent from that last fun fact, I never really equated the belief in the principles of one's country with the belief in the principles of one's religion, but I can see the similarities. I know it's going to sound weird, but I find the parallels fun to think about. It tickles my brain to view our country in terms of devout or non-practicing Americans and our political parties as denominations of the same faith. In times of partisanship (or denominational division), as was evident during last night's State of the Union address, it would be nice if those in the room and those of us at home could refer back to a (yet-to-be-written) book called Mere Democracy. It would be akin to C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity and would "explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians Americans at all times."

As a final aside, it's apparently old news, but I only found out last night, from watching The Tonight Show, that Harrison Ford is currently shooting a historical drama about the capture of John Wilkes Booth. It's called Manhunt and is slated for release in 2007. After reading this book, I can't wait to see the movie, but I have a feeling that Vowell can't wait to see it even more than I do.

Answers (if they could be upside-down, they would be): A – 4. B - 2. C - 1. D - 3.