If you're looking for something to read, allow me to suggest this really engrossing book. It tells the story of the assassination of James Garfield and how he would have survived but for the ineptitude of the doctor(s) attending him who didn't accept the idea of invisible germs flying around in the air and of the the antiseptic procedures advocated by the British doctor Joseph Lister. This was obviously before the US had the best healthcare system in the world for anybody who could afford it.

It is also the story of the completely deranged man who shot him (and who was hanged despite the fact that nobody doubted his insanity). His self delusion was so extreme as to make him a fascinating character in his own right.

The cast of characters also includes the Emperor of Brasil, Dom Pedro II (about whom I knew nothing more than his name, which is a subway stop between our house and downtown), Alexander Graham Bell, and some of the other important US political figures of the day.

It is almost surreal to realize that it was an age when the telephone already had been invented, and certain people were dreading the ring of the phone to hear that the President had died, and yet the doctors themselves were still so ignorant as to be responsible for the infection that killed him. The author makes the point that, had Garfield been a derelict in the Bowery who had gone unattended, he probably would have survived. He would have become one more of the many thousands of people after the civil war walking around with a lead ball embedded in some harmless part of their body.

The other principle pleasure of the book was the discovery of what an interesting person Garfield was. I definitely want to read more about him.

Another tidbit that I had read before but forgotten. Robert Todd Lincoln was with Garfield at the time he was shot. Twenty years later he was with McKinley when he was shot.

A few other things I've encountered recently that I appreciated:

Book titles: 

Didn't I Feed You Yesterday?: A Mother's Guide to Sanity in Stilettos.
Oh Lord, Help Me Keep My Panties On

From Barry Commoner's obituary in the NY Times, regarding his quixotic presidential campaign in 1980:

He later said his favorite moment from the campaign was when a reporter in Albuquerque asked him "Dr. Commoner, are you a serious candidate, or are you just running on the issues?"

 "There is nothing farther away from Washington than the entire world." ...Arthur Miller