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+--- Thread: Who wrote this? (/thread-3710.html)
RE: Who wrote this? - RJNorton - 10-04-2026
I am sorry, Anita, but it wasn't Eleanor Roosevelt.
RE: Who wrote this? - STS Lincolnite - 10-04-2026
Maybe too obvious to be right given the subject of this forum, but I’ll guess Mary Lincoln.
RE: Who wrote this? - RJNorton - 10-04-2026
Right on, Scott. Very good!
Letter to her daughter-in-law, Mary Harlan Lincoln, circa 1870. SOURCE: First Ladies Quotation Book compiled and edited by William O. Foss (New York, Barricade Books, 1999), p.72. Also, Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography by Jean H. Baker (New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 1987), p.304.
RE: Who wrote this? - RJNorton - 10-07-2026
Light-hearted time.
Which First Lady made the following comment about surfing?
"Surf-riding at Waikiki Beach is a great game...when you see a beautiful, slim, brown native, naked save for short swimming trunks, come gliding down a high, white breaker, poised like Mercury, erect on a single narrow plank - it looks delightfully exhilarating."
RE: Who wrote this? - AussieMick - 10-07-2026
Jackie Kennedy?
RE: Who wrote this? - RJNorton - 10-07-2026
Nope. not Jackie Kennedy. Earlier.
RE: Who wrote this? - Gene C - 10-07-2026
Mamie Eisenhower ?
RE: Who wrote this? - RJNorton - 10-07-2026
It's not Mamie Eisenhower. Earlier.
RE: Who wrote this? - Rob Wick - 10-08-2026
Edith Roosevelt?
Best
Rob
RE: Who wrote this? - RJNorton - 10-08-2026
Nope, it wasn't Edith Roosevelt, but Rob is closest to the right answer.
RE: Who wrote this? - RJNorton - 10-08-2026
This was a tough one - I think I'll just post the answer. It was Helen Taft.
SOURCE: Helen Taft, Reflections of Full Years, 1914.
RE: Who wrote this? - AussieMick - 10-09-2026
"Surf-riding at Waikiki Beach is a great game...when you see a beautiful, slim, brown native, naked save for short swimming trunks, come gliding down a high, white breaker, poised like Mercury, erect on a single narrow plank - it looks delightfully exhilarating."
Is it cruel of me to suggest that Mrs Taft probably never saw President Taft surfing?
( But I'm sure that she loved him, anyway)
RE: Who wrote this? - RJNorton - 10-09-2026
I think you might be onto something, Michael. Rather he was a golfer. Here is Robert Lincoln playing golf (3rd person from left) with Taft (far left).
![[Image: robert22.jpg]](http://rogerjnorton.com/photos/robert22.jpg)
RE: Who wrote this? - J. Beckert - 10-10-2026
The bedroom Taft stayed in at Hildene is the only room that's completely original and unrestored from the initial 1905 construction. And it's very neat to see.