Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Linclon, Lincon (for Lincoln, etc.)

At last count, there were 12 hits in OhioLINK on the typo Linclon and six on Lincon: four for the president, one a misspelling of LINCOM, and one a proper name I'm honestly not sure about. "Honest Abe" was no con man, but he was a practical joker. There are stories galore about Abraham Lincoln as a child and young man, some very moving and others quite funny. In one, he walks three miles to return a penny—or, according to one source, six pennies. (Question: Who was on the penny before Lincoln?) In another one, he holds a group of barefoot boys upside-down so they can stamp their muddy footprints on his stepmother's ceiling. (She had previously remarked that Abe, at 6' 4", was so tall she feared he'd leave his own up there someday.) Lincoln—who gave what many consider his finest speech, the Second Inaugural Address, on March 4, 1865—was a great wit whose quips and barbs have been collected by historians. "If I were two-faced," he pointed out once, "would I be wearing this one?" And somewhat suggestively: "No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens."

Answer: An Indian (although an Eagle flew from 1857 to 1858, and before that there was a parade of Lady Liberty designs, but these predated the "penny" per se)

(Last known portrait of President Lincoln, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

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