What do you say when you run out of things to talk about? If you’re James Madison writing to Thomas Jefferson in 1786, you say: “For want of something better to fill the remainder of my paper I will now add the result of my examination two days ago of another of our minor quadrupeds. I mean, a weasel. It was a female and came to my hands dead.”
And then you write 1000 more words about your detailed examination of the weasel including measurements between its various body parts.
Though Jefferson was just as interested in comparing North American animals to their European counterparts as Madison, his only acknowledgment of Madison’s weasel report was, “I thank you for your communications in natural history.” Plodding through the Presidents
It seems many of us here are in good company.