Killing Lincoln

[jonathan]

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One person felt that Booth was a little too melodramatic (old-time villain) in a few spots

I'll admit that this is a concern I've had also. I enjoyed those clips on the website, but some of the Booth scenes did seem a touch over the top for my taste. That's one of the things that I really really loved about Lincoln, that Day-Lewis seemed to make every effort to play Lincoln as Lincoln really was, as far as voice, mannerisms, etc. The thing is, Booth may have been exactly like that in the way he carried himself day to day, in which case it's not the portrayal of Booth, but rather Booth himself that would be a little over the top for my taste. I'm sure they did their homework, and I'm no expert on what it was like to spend an afternoon with John Wilkes Booth. Regardless, I'm not about to rush to judgement before I've seen the whole thing, and with the reports being so positive I'm sure it'll be just fine. After all, it's completely unrealistic to expect anything of this nature to be all things to all people. I'm just really glad that historical accuracy has been so important to the people who worked on this.

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Okay, so I'm no expert on how these forums work with editing posts and whatnot. I did something that ended up deleting a post I made, so here's the lite version of that post….

You guys are talking about Moon Pies so much, I'm getting one tomorrow. If you've never had grits and you want some, make sure to put red eye gravy on them. If you don't have red eye gravy, use plenty of better. They're awesome.

[Gene C]

Anyone ever had a Goo Goo Cluster?

http://www.googoo.com/our-story/whats-a-goo-goo/

The original is the best. Do they have a Cracker Barrel restaurant where you live?
They have Moon Pies and Goo Goo Clusters. (so does Stuckeys)

My wife fixed me "Southern" fried chicken tonite for Valentines Day. (Move over Colonel Sanders)

[GARY POPOLO]

Hello All! I am playing catch up to all the postings about the Killing Lincoln movie. BettyO you seemed to have been a very busy lady of late to say the least! Good for you. I am so jealous! You must have been in your glory. I am so looking forward to seeing the movie this weekend. Also I wanted to let you know that I just finished your book on our Mr. Paine. I am sure that you have been told a number of times how good it was to read. I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed reading it also. Not being a writer I can only imagine the amount of time,effort and reseach you must have endured to write such a detailed book. You said that you are working on a second book with new information on Lewis. I can't believe you missed anything in your first book. But I will be one among many waiting to read it as soon as it is released. Gary P.

[jonathan]

Anyone ever had a Goo Goo Cluster?

http://www.googoo.com/our-story/whats-a-goo-goo/

The original is the best. Do they have a Cracker Barrel restaurant where you live?
They have Moon Pies and Goo Goo Clusters. (so does Stuckeys)

My wife fixed me "Southern" fried chicken tonite for Valentines Day. (Move over Colonel Sanders)

I used to love Goo Goo Clusters. For a while back in the day they were even making Goo Goo Cluster ice cream, which I gobbled down on plenty of occasions. There are Cracker Barrels all over the place here in North Carolina, but I saw a display full of Moon Pies just the other day in Food Lion, which is a grocery store chain here in the southeast that has a location about every 50 feet.

[Jim Garrett]

Imagine two round discs, each about four inches or so in diameter - a graham cracker like cookie substance covered in a thin layer of chocolate. Put them together like an Oreo cookie with marshmallow filling on the inside. They are certainly NOT an epicurean delight, but they are mementos of by-gone days in America when people could relax with a hunk of calorie-laden goodness and a cold drink in a bottle that came straight from an old-fashion cola tub filled with ice Half the fun was freezing your hands while you selected the coldest bottle in the tub, and then peeling the wrapper off the Moon Pie and feeling yourself gain weight.

In order to get grits and moon pies, be sure to fly into a Southern airport! Boston or New York or Chicago will put you a thousand miles away from the nearest Moon Pie and grits.

As for Hershey chocolate, I guess I must like doggie drops because Hershey bars with almonds are my favorite. I sampled chocolate all over Europe when I was there years ago, and nothing compared to good old Hershey's. Belgian chocolate came close, and Swiss was okay. I guess it's all in what you grow up with,

OK Laurie:

Do I remember correctly that the conference has grits for breakfast? So we just need to have the Moon Pies on either Friday or Saturday night.

[wsanto]

Moon pies are okay if your choices are limited... but, where I grew up in Johnstown, PA; GOBs were the bomb. Two dark chocolate cakes (cooked in the oven like cookies to give them a particular shape) then put together with a creamy center of butter-nut (or some other flavored) icing.

You can buy them at any Sheetz (which started in western PA) and now dominates any convienence-store market they enter. Buy their stock if it ever goes public.

[MaddieM]

Imagine two round discs, each about four inches or so in diameter - a graham cracker like cookie substance covered in a thin layer of chocolate. Put them together like an Oreo cookie with marshmallow filling on the inside. They are certainly NOT an epicurean delight, but they are mementos of by-gone days in America when people could relax with a hunk of calorie-laden goodness and a cold drink in a bottle that came straight from an old-fashion cola tub filled with ice Half the fun was freezing your hands while you selected the coldest bottle in the tub, and then peeling the wrapper off the Moon Pie and feeling yourself gain weight.

In order to get grits and moon pies, be sure to fly into a Southern airport! Boston or New York or Chicago will put you a thousand miles away from the nearest Moon Pie and grits.

As for Hershey chocolate, I guess I must like doggie drops because Hershey bars with almonds are my favorite. I sampled chocolate all over Europe when I was there years ago, and nothing compared to good old Hershey's. Belgian chocolate came close, and Swiss was okay. I guess it's all in what you grow up with,

Perhaps the Hershey's they sell over here is not the same... It's a mystery to me how chocolate can taste so bad. We do have very good chocolate over here. We now have Krispy Kreme, and again, I find them way too sweet for my palate.

[MaddieM]

AHA! The lightbulb moment! We DO have moon pies in the UK..only we call them Wagon Wheels

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I'm getting all excited now... there has to be a UK equivalent of grits!

Porridge?

[jonathan]

Ooooh, now don't knock the Krispy Kreme's (), they were born an hour from where I live and are beloved all over the state. For the last several years here in Raleigh, we've had the Krispy Kreme challenge, where contestants run 2.5 miles from the N.C. State Bell Tower to the Krispy Kreme on Peace Street, pound down a dozen doughnuts, then run the 2.5 miles back to the Bell Tower. This year, there were 8,000 contestants and $177,000 dollars was raised for the North Carolina Children's Hospital. The winner finished in 31 and a half minutes. I usually keep my Krispy Kreme intake to 2 or 3, so I won't be running that race anytime soon. In fact, I can't even imagine it.

[MaddieM]

Kind of back on topic... what kind of sweet goodies would they have had in Lincoln's time? Was anything mass produced back then?

[Rob Wick]

Perhaps the Hershey's they sell over here is not the same... It's a mystery to me how chocolate can taste so bad. We do have very good chocolate over here. We now have Krispy Kreme, and again, I find them way too sweet for my palate.

Is it dark chocolate or milk chocolate? Dark chocolate has very little sugar compared to milk chocolate, which makes it taste terrible, in my opinion.

Best
Rob

[Laurie Verge]

A personal favorite that dates to pre-Civil War Richmond and then was transplanted to Washington, D.C. after the war is something called Velatis Caramels. The Velati family were Italian immigrants who started a candy business in Richmond. It was lost when that city was burned at the end of the Civil War. They moved their business to D.C. and started over.

When I was a child, they had the typical old-time candy store on 8th or 9th Street. They carried a wide assortment of every kind of candy that you can imagine, but the highlight of their products was their assortment of homemade caramels - both sugary (my favorite) and chewy, vanilla, chocolate, true caramel, some layered with marshmallow cream, some with nuts. Out of this world delicious!

They went out of business in the 1960s, but their caramel recipes were bought by one of the top-notch department stores in D.C. - Woodward & Lothrop. They went out of business about twenty years ago. We found out that Velati descendants were manufacturing the caramels in Florida, and several of us would mail order them. They have now opened another shop just outside D.C. There used to be a website for them, so type in Velatis Caramels and check them out.

Warning to Maddie - they are very sweet, which is a major requirement for any American with Southern genes. BTW: Way back in the 1930s, my mother used to date an Englishman who was the heir to a British candy company named Lowrys. Is it still around?

[BettyO]

Hey, Ya'll !

I've created a NEW THREAD for Period Food and Southern Food under OTHER -


Let's all post our "foodie" stuff there and stay on topic - Thanks!!

[Loomings]

Amongst a dung heap of Campbell-isn't-Day-Lewis snakiness, this appeared and was just sent to me. Perhaps appropriate for this particular thread (despite the lacke of reference to guilty pleasure food).

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013...es-history

[BettyO]

Erik -

Cheers! This is wonderful stuff and shows how detailed and conscientious you all are with your production -- thanks ever so very much!

Killing Lincoln is a historical treat -- and the little "Easter Eggs" are what make the film what it is - a real treat for historians and researchers !