Presidents Day

I hope all my Democrat friends spent this Presidents Day reflecting on how very lucky we are to have the current occupant of the White House instead of one of those losers they choose to nominate every four years.

As for me, I caught myself watching a C-SPAN tribute to the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. Sounds lame, but it was actually pretty interesting for the first 20 minutes or so. They had Liam Neeson portraying Old Abe and Holly Hunter portraying that nutcase Mary Todd.

Neeson was great. No trace of his Irish brogue. Hunter, on the other hand, had a very distracting lisp and a fakey Southern accent that made her almost unwatchable.

The moderator mentioned that Stephen Spielberg has optioned Doris Kearns Goodwin's new book about the Lincoln administration, Team of Rivals, and that Neeson is the leading contender to portray the president. Based on the C-SPAN performance, he deserves it. Let's just hope they find someone other than Hunter for First Lady. Or, maybe, Stevey-boy could just cut out that part or limit her to a cameo. Listen to me, the big Hollywood producer over here.

Anyway, all the Lincolnia on tv tonite brought to mind one of the skeletons in our family's closet. It turns out that Old Abe's first love was NOT Mary Todd, but a young lady named Anne Rutledge--a distant cousin on the Arnett side of the family. (That's a portrait of the star-crossed lovers above.)

Unfortunately, Anne died of some dread disease before they could marry. Spared the gene pool, I guess. But, I wonder what affect an Arnett cousin in the White House would have had on the Civil War.

Ah, well, musings for another day, I suppose . . .