Procrastination, thy name is Mandy

I need to be working on a fellowship application. In fact, I stayed up late tonight to work on it, but I cannot bring myself to open it. I've checked my e-mail a bajillion (yes, a bajillion) times, played Scrabble on facebook, read statuses (against my better judgment I might add since the President's State of the Union address was tonight...I'll just leave it at that), and tried in vain to make something new appear to give me another reason not to open my Word document. So, I decided to post a blog. Yes, I'm ridiculous.

But, since I'm here I think I'll share one of my favorite anecdotes from Monday night's lecture. We were talking about the arrival of the Europeans: Spanish Catholics, French Catholics, and, of course, the English. We discussed the difference between Spanish and French conversion techniques and non-separating and separating Puritans...it was riveting, really.

But, I digress. I was telling my class about one of my favorite quotes about Puritans by H. L. Mencken. He definited Puritanism as, "The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." In fact, this is what people often think of when they think of Puritans. So, in order to problematize this characterization a bit, I gave some examples of how much Puritans enjoyed life (including their love of rum for breakfast). But, here's the kicker...my favorite example. In 1630 a Puritan woman took her husband to court for failing to fulfill his conjugal duties. That's right, my friends. 16-freakin'-30. Rock on, Puritan Mama. :-)

Unfortunately, I don't have a source other than notes from my dear Duke professor's lecture, but I'm working on it. Seriously, this is such a fun story and one that (hopefully) the students will remember.

Okay, off to open Word. Maybe. Okay, yes, yes, I am.