Most people go to graveyards to pay their respects to the dead, study the tombstones, research their family trees, admire the landscaping, and — oh, there are all sorts of reasons.
But this Thursday evening, September 24th, you can — and should — go to Elmwood Cemetery to attend the book-signing for Veiled Remarks, a really fine book produced by my friend Melissa Anderson Sweazy, a super-talented writer and photographer.
Subtitled “A Curious Compendium for the Nuptially Inclined,” the book is a nice collection (hence the word “compendium” you see) of all sorts of historical tidbits and oddities relating to marriage, such as: an Old English rhyme for predicting the best day to marry, Charles Darwin’s pro and con list concerning marriage, etiquette expert Emily Post on how to handle broken engagements, notable figures in history who suffered cold feet on their wedding day, and — my personal favorite — “a brief history of the syphilis test required by most states in the early twentieth century for a marriage license.”
Not that those test results had anything to do with the Lauderdales’ many broken engagements, I assure you. What ARE you thinking?
Now why would Melissa hold this event at Elmwood? Well, she’ll tell you all about that when you arrive. At least I hope she will.
The book signing begins at 5 p.m. in the Elmwood Chapel (just inside the main entrance) and will last until the hundreds of thousands of people who read this blog have gone home. I myself may make a rare public appearance, which is reason enough for you to attend.
For more information about the book, go here.