I warned you that my blog would be eclectic!

I am immersed in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s bio of Abraham Lincoln “Team of Rivals” (Simon and Schuster 2005). The more I read about Lincoln, the more I like him.

Goodwin relates that Lincoln was a great raconteur.

He loved to tell the (apocryphal?) tale of Ethan Allen’s visit to England soon after the Revolution. There he was subject to much teasing banter. The British would love to make fun of General George Washington. They obtained a picture of Washington and displayed it in the outhouse, where Mr Allen could not miss it. He did not make mention of it, so is hosts asked him if he had seen the picture.

He retorted that “he thought that it was a very appropriate place for an Englishman to keep it”. His hosts enquired “why?”

Allen responded that “there is nothing that will make an Englishman shit so quick as the sight of General Washington”.

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