From last night’s “debate,” when Wolf Blitzer asked why the candidates think their wife would make a great first lady. He failed to mention Callista Gingrich’s hair!:
NEWT GINGRICH: “Let me say, first of all, having gotten to know them, I think all three of the wives represented here would be terrific first ladies. Callista and I have gotten to know all three of them, and we think they’d be fabulous people. So I would rather just to talk about why I like Callista, and why I’d like her to be first lady, but she’s not necessarily in any way better. These are wonderful people, and they would be wonderful first ladies.
But Callista brings a couple of things. One is a tremendous artistic focus. She’s done a video in music education, why it really matters. She’s a pianist by background, plays the French horn in a community band, sings in the choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. She really cares about the arts and would bring a really strong feeling for music education and for art, and why it matters to people as part of their education.
She’s also very patriotic about American exceptionalism. She’s had a best-selling “New York Times” book, children’s book, and has really reached out to young people to get them to understand America.
And she’s helped produce and host seven movies now, so she would bring an entire, I think, artistic flavor.
But — and I, obviously, would be thrilled to be able to hang out with her at the White House. So it would be good.”
This colorized picture of Abraham Lincoln is mesmerizing to me. Just look at that Friday Face!
Here’s an oddly pertinent quote from Mr. Lincoln:
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.” –Abraham Lincoln in a letter written to William Elkin, 1860
The colorized version somehow makes him more immediate, more real, less mythical.
My favorite book as a first-grader was this one by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire:
I withdrew it from the school library time after time. Just a few years ago, I found one in a used bookstore that had been discarded from a library in Missouri. (The book is available on Amazon, just click the above pic.)
I was fascinated by this illustration and others in the book
Naturally, there were two things I loved at Disneyland: the Nickelodeon (long gone), and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln… the original (it’s been updated since 2001).
I know, I am a nerd, and Abraham Lincoln is today’s Friday Face.
Our dear Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall has returned from her holiday respite — at last!
Looking refreshed, rested and reupholstered, with her purple plaid outfit out of the cedar closet, Camilla boasted about her delusions by wearing this insane apron, touting the merits of British food. Yes, she’s totally crazy now.
I had hoped that this photo meant that the Duchess was starring in a Royal production of “Sweeney Todd,” but alas, she’s just making meat pies for Betty Deuce’s jubilee. Nuts.