Random Stuff

[Laurie Verge]

There are just some things totally unrelated to Lincoln, the Civil War, the assassination, etc. that are too good not to share. This is one of them.

Most of you have probably heard of the J.W. Marriott Corporation, which is big in the hotel business. In the D.C. area, this business got its start back in the 1930s and 40s with a chain of restaurants known as Hot Shoppes. They were one of the first to offer not only inside seating, but also curb service (remember carhop girls?). In the 1950s and 60s, I was addicted to their sandwiches called the Teen Twist and the Mighty Mo. They also offered Pappy Parker's Fried Chicken before the Colonel came to D.C. The last of their restaurants to close was about five miles from Surratt House. This happened in 1999.

Now, a great online site called Streets of Washington brought back memories today when they e-mailed their latest story -- about the Hot Shoppes. I may have loved the Teen Twist and the Mo, but a listing of some of their sandwiches during the 40s made me think twice. How many of you have had these delicacies?

"The Mexican cuisine, supplemented by barbecue, had quickly evolved into a classic line-up of what people now call comfort food—hamburgers, steak sandwiches, grilled cheese, ham and eggs. A wartime menu featured an assortment of sandwiches some of which would be a hard sell today: peanut butter and lettuce, fried egg with grilled spiced meat loaf, liverwurst with lettuce and egg salad. Main entrees included creamed flaked tuna fish on toast and "crab meat and chopped egg in a tomato," among other items."

Somehow I remember my mother once trying to convince me to eat something that sounds like that creamed tuna fish on toast..... Yuck!

[LincolnMan]

That is fun to go back and remember. My mother used to make us the creamed tuna fish on toast thing-it wasn't bad!

[Laurie Verge]

We are always plugging the Surratt Museum's bus tours over the escape route of John Wilkes Booth, so our tour coordinator (since 1977), Joan Chaconas, sat down to compile a Who's Who list of authors and actors who have participated in our tours over the years. Here's who she's found so far:

Full books as well as articles: Guy Moore (Case of Mary Surratt), Edward Steers, Michael Kauffman, David Gaddy, Gen. Tidwell, Brian Pohanka, William C. (Jack) Davis, Art Loux, John McHale (Mudd publications), Ernest Miller (JWB in Oil Fields), Terry Alford, Constance Head, Elizabeth Trindal, Betty Ownsbey, Michael Burlingame, Alan Virta, Robert Mills, John Andrews, Anthony Pitch, James Swanson.

Magazine Articles and Booklets: Dr. Joseph George, Shirley Baltz, Patrick Falci

Actors: William Sanders and Arthur Kincaid, both of whom did one-man plays on Booth. Stacy Keech also did his own escape tour in a limosine.