Making Chocolate Lecture at the Library of Congress

We’ve gone to the Library of Congress lectures many times. Before I retired, I would meet my husband and we would go to primarily Middle Eastern programs in the beautiful Jefferson Building over my lunch break. Since I retired, we still go to programs, but at a more leisurely pace. Last week we attended a presentation about Spain and the Eastern US. It was difficult to understand because of the Spanish accents and innuendo, but more because no one ever uses a microphone. Yesterday we went to see a program about making chocolate. That is a subject near and dear to my husband. For the same reason I was very disappointed. The speakers acted quite casual in their approach, didn’t use the microphone - again, and they were essentially selling their products on their website. I’m not sure that is such a great idea. What surprises me the most is that this is the Library of Congress! I would expect a certain amount of reasonable preparedness, and meeting standards for such things. The Library tapes all of these presentations. I think this is one I would avoid. In all the events we have attended - which are many - I think there are two that were memorable. One was about the making of the Shahnameh book with a very enthusiastic artist/ author who used a variety of visual aids and another author who wrote about the Presidents, as fathers, and their children. It’s pretty sad when lecturers read to you, don’t use microphones, have no visual options, and are very boring. We always hope the next one will be better. Luckily for us all it takes is a two block walk down the street to get to our destination. It might be a bit more irritating otherwise.