Opinion: John Quincy Adams: president, diplomat ... Twitterer?
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Twitter is no longer reserved solely for the living.
Starting today, former U.S. President John Quincy Adams will join Twitter to chronicle his trip to Russia -- a trip that took place 200 years ago. Well, his writings will join Twitter.
During a visit to the sixth U.S. president’s archives, a high school student noticed that Adams’ concise journal entries looked a lot like tweets. The Massachusetts Historical Society decided that creating a Twitter account for Adams would be the perfect way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his trip to Russia as U.S. minister.
The Tweets from Adams’ journal will cover a range of details from his journey, including meals, weather updates and the daily occurrences aboard his ship:
August 15, 1809: ‘Weather fine_ wind scanty. Lat: 44-13. Long: 53-40. This afternoon I found the Caboose on fire.’ August 31, 1809: ‘Calm and light winds. Pleasant weather. Lat: 59-23. Long: 17-15. Cimon and Lucullus. Cards.’
Sure, Adams’ tweets may seem a bit dull compared with what we’re used to seeing on Twitter, but what they lack in emoticons and LOLs, they more than make up for with lots and lots of geographical coordinates.
--Brendan Bigelow
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