The updates to my earlier post are getting out of hand. But I thought this email in response to the Mark Twain business was worth posting:
Dear Jonah, There is simply no greater Mark Twain fan than me, and I just couldn’t buy the fact that Twain would ever suggest that the government was good at anything! So, I went and looked up that passage…
“…and there is profuse adornment in the way of semi-tropical shrubs and flowers; and in one part is a piece of native wild-wood, left just as it grew, and, therefore, perfect in its charm. Everything about this cemetery suggests the hand of the national Government.”
In other words, the cemetery was an overgrown, untended mess! There is no more talented satirist than Twain. Respectfully, [Name Withheld]