File:Satterfield watches Congress be boring.jpg

English: in 1904, Bob Satterfield attended a sitting of the United States Congress, and observed that "when one goes to see "the wise men of the nation in council", one might expect "to see them solemnly debating heavy questions of state, dignified and grave as in the familiar picture of the signing of the declaration of independence. That is, you think you are going to see it. You don't, though. What you really see is a wide expanse of mahogany furniture. Here and there, like little islands, you see a score of ordinary looking citizens, singly or in bunches. They are vigorously occupied -- doing most everything, in fact, except listening to a man making a speech. Reading newspapers, writing letters and cracking jokes are the main timekillers. The speechmaker has a wrestling match with himself up and down a side aisle. It looks like a fall and then it doesn't. He waves his gray whiskers in defiance and punches holes in the air that would lay out Sharkey. You couldn't call it calisthenics; it's heavy training. Nobody pays attention."