Something New

[LincolnToddFan]

(08-03-2014 12:19 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Lincoln mentioned his teeth at least one time in a letter. This quote is from a letter Lincoln wrote to Mary Speed (Joshua Speed's half sister) on September 27, 1841:

"Do you remember my going to the city while I was in Kentucky, to have a tooth extracted, and making a failure of it? Well, that same old tooth got to paining me so much, that about a week since I had it torn out, bringing with it a bit of the jawbone; the consequence of which is that my mouth is now so sore that I can neither talk, nor eat. I am litterally ``subsisting on savoury remembrances''---that is, being unable to eat, I am living upon the remembrance of the delicious dishes of peaches and cream we used to have at your house."

Oh God...!! My jaw began to ache just from reading this, Roger...yikes!

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(08-03-2014 12:40 PM)L Verge Wrote:  

(08-03-2014 09:12 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(07-25-2014 10:42 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Once you get the book, you can solve this riddle on the forum: How did someone describe Mr. Lincoln's method of eating an apple? Very different from what most of us do...

I haven't received the book yet, but in Donald's "Herndon" which I'm currently about to finish (excellent book IMO!!!), I came across the following quote from a letter Herndon wrote to Isaac Arnold on Oct. 24, 1883: "Mr. Lincoln was exceedingly fond of apples and fruits generally -: he ate apples peculiarly - he clasped his finger - fore finger, and his thumb around the Equatorial part of the apple - the stem end being toward his mouth: he never peeled apples - peaches - pears &c." (HA, I never do either! The rest is indeed peculiar!!!)

That is pretty much the way it is described in the AL In The Kitchen Book.

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Has there ever been a description of Lincoln's hands as to size, texture, large knuckles, etc.?

On a side note, but related to food, have y'all seen the new Burger King commercial where they are changing the $5 bill? The Lincoln photo is now holding two BK burgers.

AL's enormous hands are clearly visible in the famous series of photos taken by Alexander Gardner toward the end of the war. In one of the photos his hands are blurry but you can still see that his mitts were almost freakishly large, with very prominent veins.

He also had a plaster cast of his hands made just before he left Springfield for Washington. His right hand was noticeably swollen from having shaken so many hands in the previous days and weeks.