Citizen Reader

Does anyone actually host or go to "cocktail parties" any more? They sound like fun.

I spent the majority of my weekend indexing, so I didn't get a whole lot of time to read much else. (That's not entirely true; I am, in fact, re-reading David Eddings's fantasy series The Belgariad, which I was going to leave until the winter, but which is turning out to be a lovely and relaxing summer re-read.) So I had to take a small hiatus from nonfiction pleasure reading. But the books I was indexing were interesting--it's a series for middle/high schoolers about famous economists. So, here's what I learned:

Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations and a favorite quotation source for proponents of unadulterated free trade and capitalism everywhere, was a long-time customs commisioner and tax collector. File under "I" for Irony.

and

John Maynard Keynes was bisexual, or at least had relationships with men when he was younger. (And one of the men he had a love affair with was Lytton Strachey, who became famous for writing the biography Eminent Victorians, and who is often credited for jumpstarting the popularity of biographies.)

Who said learning had to be dull?