I knew I was listening to a Pulitzer Prize-winning author because Wood’s talk was littered with a wide range of words like apoplectic, turgid, egalitarian, dissimulation, and implacable, though, when he threw in tumult, I felt like I was back home in the kitchen of my childhood.

According to historian Wood, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had very disparate personalities and held differing opinions on almost everything, but one thing they could agree upon was a hatred of Alexander Hamilton, and that was long before it cost $500 a seat to get to know him.

One of the many things that differentiated Adams and Jefferson was that, whereas Jefferson was reserved, Adams “lacked the gift of silence.” Now I know what to give my friends for the holidays.

In discussing the letters between Adams and Jefferson, Wood deterred from his historical accounts by suggesting that future generations wouldn’t even be able to read their correspondence because cursive writing is no longer taught. I’m not sure that follows. I know the converse isn’t accurate, as I learned cursive in school, but can’t read a lot of people’s handwriting, including my own. In any event, cursive, at least as of a couple years ago, wasn’t dead yet, just as if it were a Monty Python character,

Jefferson also corresponded, and, according to Wood, flirted with Adam’s wife Abigail. In a 1785 letter to her, Jefferson wrote, in reference to some items he was purchasing for her in Paris: “They offered me a fine Venus; but I thought it out of taste to have two at table at the same time.”  Quite the charmer.  If only he’d lose the wig.

Finally, in case you were wondering, Wood, when asked by an audience member, said, given their personalities, he would rather have a drink with John Adams than Thomas Jefferson. Surprisingly, he offered no opinion about Samuel Adams.