Sunday Comics Survey from Washington Post: Lincoln Wins!

Greetings to our fans in Seoul, South Korea, or where ever you may be today. Here is our weekly comic strips survey, today we are featuring comics from the Sunday "Washington Post" that ran on May 18th. Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos now owns the newspaper, and for $1.75 million, we will sell him this blog as well.

Among our favorites were "Pearls Before Swine," which takes the Abe Lincoln in McDonald's concept (a short story in which the 16th president takes a ride through a time machine) and examines what the 16th president would do in the age of Twitter. Stephan Pastis even dares asks the question about what Honest Abe would have tweeted right before going to see a play at Ford's Theatre, where he was assassinated.

Interestingly enough, the actual Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, now an active venue and museum (top image) has started a production of "One Destiny," a 35-minute one-act play about Lincoln's ill-fated visit to the theatre.

Similarly, "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy" featured a great satire that reminded us of "Doctor Who" (center image), "The Argyle Sweater" featured an audition for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (bottom image) and "Foxtrot" featured a siblings squabble over a printer which was running out of ink.

Here is our survey:

1) "Pearls Before Swine"

2) "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy"

3) "The Argyle Sweater"

4) "Foxtrot"

5) "Rhymes with Orange"

6) "Lio"

7) "Dustin"

8) "Sherman's Lagoon"

9) "Judge Parker"

10) "Knight Life"


SIDEBAR: The other day, we had an entry dedicated to college commencement speakers. Today we add three more: 1) Ed Helms, Cornell University; 2) Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, William and Mary and 3) John Legend, University of Pennsylvania.

http://www.gocomics.com


http://www.washingtonpost.com/comics

http://www.fordstheatre.org/

Quote of the Day: Abraham Lincoln

Greetings to our blog readers in Lithuania, Thailand and South Sudan, actually I'm pretty sure we never had a hit from there.

Today, we quote Abraham Lincoln, the 16th American president, who was assassinated at the Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC.

Today, the Ford's Theatre offers both tours and stage productions. Starting on Jan.24th (until Feb. 23rd), Ford's Theatre will be producing the musical "Violet," which is based on "The Ugliest Pilgrim" by Doris Betts.

There is also the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.

Here is the quote from Lincoln, who has reportedly been the third person who has the most books written about him, behind Jesus Christ and William Shakespeare:

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."

http://www.fordstheatre.org

http://www.alplm.org

Quote of the Day- Charlton Heston

Today, we quote the late actor Charlton Heston (1923-2008), as we continue quoting actors who played real-life presidents. Heston had the distinction of playing three presidents: One as Andrew Jackson, the seventh American president, in the feature film "The Buccaneer" * (1959, dir: Anthony Quinn) and he played Thomas Jefferson in the tv movie "The Patriots" and later in life he played Abraham Lincoln in the tv mini-series "The Great Battles of the Civil War."

Today, on our other blog, we have a quote from Nick Nolte who played Jefferson in the 1995 film "Jefferson in Paris." 

The following quote is a bit ironic in that Heston was not only one of the few Republicans in Hollywood, he also became a right-wing icon when he headed the controversial, but powerful gun lobbying group The National Rifle Organization (NRA). Here is indeed referring to a president who was a Democrat:

"Jackson was one of my favorite presidents. One mean son of a bitch."

*-Heston actually plays a young Gen. Andrew Jackson in the film

SIDEBAR: In sports, we mentioned the Durham Bulls, a popular minor league baseball team in Durham, NC, a few nights ago. Well, as it turns out, they did finish their series against the Rochester Red Wings in spite of their home game being rained out on Saturday. On Monday night, the Bulls beat the Red Wings 4-0 as shortstop Tim Beckham and outfielder Jose Feliciano hit a pair of doubles in a game which saw a much-heralded Australian prospect Liam Hendricks (7-1) taking the mound for the visitors.

http://www.charltonhestonworld.homestead.com

http://www.twitter.com/durhambulls

To Be or Not To Be.....Ask the Republicans

The great comic/author Sarah Vowell said: "No one goes to the Ford's Theatre to see the play." The joke is that many are curious to be watching a theatrical performance in a place where the assasination of President Abraham Lincoln took place. But, as great as that quip is, the reality is that the Ford's Theatre is apparently a great place to see a play.

But, right now, there is uncertainty if 'the show will go' or not, due to the looming possibility of a federal government shutdown, which earlier today seemed to have reached a miracolous conclusion, but now we aren't so certain.

The Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, is not actually performing "Hamlet," but rather a musical/comedy romp called "Liberty Smith," which "The Washington Post" described as an '18th centry Zelig.'

The fictional character Liberty Smith was, according to the theatre's web site, a childhood pal of George Washington, an aide to Benjamin Franklin and he was linked to Paul Revere's historic ride.

The we site for the theatre has a warning about the possibility of a shutdown, which would also affect national parks from The Everglades in Florida to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. For further info about Ford's Theatre, one can call 202-347-4833.

We would recommend going to the Berlin Zoo in Berlin, Germany, as an alternative (yes, that would have been a joke) but sadly both Knut the polar bear, who died at age four, and Shaina Pali the elephant from India, who died at age six, have passed away very recently. They were major attractions at the zoo, and Knut made global headlines as he was the first polar bear born in captivity.

Earlier in the year, Paul the Octopus, died at age two. He garnered world fame by accurately predicting World Cup games. But, the aquarium that housed him in the German city of Oberhausen has erected a six-foot memorial of him with the octopus hovering over a soccer ball with the flags of all 32 countries that competed at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Lastly, we should mention that we are dedicating to our friends in South Bend, Indiana, and Grand Forks, North Dakota, who will soon be having their lunch hours.

Alas, both Notre Dame and the University of North Dakota (well, I was personally rooting for Michigan, one of my late father's alma maters) lost in the Frozen Four in St. Paul, Minn., yesterday.

Notre Dame lost by a 4-3 score to Minn-Duluth, and the Fighting Sioux fell to the Wolverines by a 2-0 margin. It was only the third time all year that North Dakota had been shut out.

Things We Learned from Twitter This P.M.- It was 145 Years Ago Today....

....That John Wilkes Booth, the theatrical actor who assasinated President Abraham Lincoln at the Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, was himself shot to death by Boston Corbett (1832-1888?-death date can not be confirmed, read on!).

An interesting detail about the shooting of Booth is that Corbett was actually arrested for the incident for a brief while before he was given $1,600 in reward money.

Corbett was an evangelical Christian who tried to immitate Jesus Christ to far extremes. He even referred to the shooting of Booth as something which 'God delivered upon him to carry out.'

Sometime before joining the Union Army, Corbett castraited himself with a pair of scissors.

In 1865, a short time after Lincoln's assasination, Corbett was asked to join a group of Union soldiers who would try to find Booth. They found him in a Virginia farm. Corbett shot Booth with a Colt revolver at a distance of no more than 12 feet.

After the incident, Corbett went crazy and moved to Kansas. He escaped from the Topeka Asylum on horseback in 1888 reportedly on his way to Mexico. Pardon the cliche---he was never seen or heard from again.

As for the Ford's Theatre, they will produce the famed musical "Little Shop of Horrors" starting on May 22 with Christopher Kale Jones starring as Seymour.

PS_I must profess that I did contemplate not posting this piece because of the incident in Asheville, NC, yesterday in which a disturbed man apparently brought a gun to the Asheville Airport where President Barack Obama was preparing to head back to the White House after a weekend vacation. But, both the history and the novelty of the Booth shooting were too interesting to me. We are certainly glad no one was succesful at hurting President Obama or his family, especially since I live in North Carolina.

SIDEBAR_In something I also learned through Twitter, Joe Rubino of "The Colorado Daily News" in Boulder, Colo., is reporting that suicide rates at Colorado University are at a four-year low. According to the article, there have only been two suicides on the campus of the Boulder university this school year. The story comes just a few weeks after NPR reported that Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, was seeing a major increase in campus suicides."From a suicide prevention standpoint we've been very succesful," Deb Coffin, CU's dean of students, told "The Colorado Daily."

Another Quote- Charles Dickens

'Tis the season, and many theatres around the country, including the recently reopened Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC (yes, the place where Abe Lincoln was shot), are staging Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

My good friend Sam Riddleberger is a big fan of Dickens. He is also a children's book writer as is his wife Cece Bell.

Here is the quote from Dickens, which is not actually holiday related:

"Great men are seldom over-scrupulous in their attire.

PS_ We learned today that Playmakers Theatre in Chapel Hill, NC, is producing another Dickens play "Nicholas Nichelby" (we may not have spelled that right?!)with 25 actors playing 150 different parts!

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