Pat Rice, the Unerudite One reporting:
In a moment of Blatant Self Promotion, I will note that a bookstore in KY is posting an interview of me at http://www.thebookstore-radcliff.com/PatriciaRiceInterviewNovember20006.html (or go to www.thebookstore-radcliff.com and click on author interviews; she has some great stuff in there). For those of you who want to know the nitty-gritty about me, there it all is, laid out for your perusal.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming!
Ha, as if I’ve ever regularly scheduled anything, or even have this blog neatly researched and ready to go. Yeah, right, and I have my house dusted and my car serviced regularly, too. I really think that’s why I write historicals—I have serious servant envy.
I adore the fantasy of having someone to make meals for me, set it on the table, and clean up 
afterward, so all I have to do is sit down in my gorgeous gown and eat it---while smiling prettily and wearing a corset. Okay, so maybe I know too much to fantasize the real deal. In today’s houses, having someone banging around in the kitchen all day would get annoying pretty quickly, especially for those of us who work at home.
And while servicing the car is a pain in the neck involving actually leaving my house and sitting around an oily waiting room for untold amounts of time, consider the historical alternative---walking ten miles a day for everything from visiting to shopping, or shelling out the bucks to own a stable and a horse and a carriage and pay stableboys and grooms and… Maybe that oily waiting room isn’t so bad after all.
But one thing I’m certain I wouldn’t miss if I was living in the eighteenth century—election ads on television! I swear, if honesty was a requirement for running for office, television stations would go broke, ad agencies would be out on the street begging, and the halls of government would echo with emptiness. Have you ever seen such distortion and downright storytelling in your life? And I write fiction for a living!
Of course, if I were a woman in the 18th century, I wouldn’t have to worry my pretty little head about who was running for office because I couldn’t vote. But I betcha if women had any interest in an election, they’d sure find a way to learn about the candidates and put a flea in the ear of their husbands and fathers and beaus. Although human nature being what it is, I imagine there was still a lot of opinions formed around scandal mongering. Can’t you just imagine one lady whispering to the other that Mr. Official was seen coming home in the wee hours in a snockered condition, and shouldn’t someone see that the handsome young Mr. Up and Coming got the post because his wife is such a gracious lady?
Personally, I like the opinion of a local columnist who suggested that voters must correctly answer three relevant civics and/or current events questions before they’d be allowed to vote. I think we could eliminate half the voters simply by asking who the vice-president is. By the time we got down to the truly informed voters, the result could be downright scary.
This is Election Day in the U.S. I don’t want any U.S. voters reading wordwenches today unless you’ve voted! Whether or not you have to take out your horse and buggy or drive your unserviced vehicle to the polling place, don’t forfeit the privilege people in other countries are dying to have—VOTE! Preferably for candidates who favor campaign reform so we don’t have to hear any more of those attack ads.
Feel free to use this space to comment on any and all electioneering…free speech is still a constitutional right!