Professor Jefferson Davis Futch was a history wonk of the highest order.
He loved the anecdotia, the lurid back stories that made the subject matter come alive. So taken was he by the peccadilloes of the Medici clan, which he shared with almost frothing at the mouth fervor, we never made it much past the Renaissance in History of Western Civ 101.
I couldn’t help but think of him years later, when while walking through Paris, I came upon the building where Catherine de’ Medici, the sign said, introduced the use of the fork to French society.