Last week we spent a lot of time talking about presidents, about the fact that almost all of our country's former presidents are dead, and how a few have been assassinated. Besides a fascination with Franklin Pierce, the Boy has asked for biographies on John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

He prefers biographies that don't mention the Ford Theater when he reads about Lincoln and told me that he did not want to read any books about John Kennedy, because they might mention his death. That's fine. I'm not particularly hoping for him to start worrying about death at the tender age of six. I had to explain there was a problem though, when he asked next if I could check out a biography of Martin Luther King Jr.

Time to go back to looking for information on Franklin Pierce.