An Oldie But Goodie

I just told this tale to a student who got a good laugh from it, so I thought I'd post it....

Back in February, with Abraham Lincoln's birthday approaching, I went to History Chairman Stuart Leibiger and asked him, Tell me some little-known facts about Lincoln.

"He spoke with a southern accent," said Leibiger.

I was floored. Leibiger reminded me that Lincoln was born in Kentucky and never lost his twang.

So all those movies and TV shows in which actors in deep tones said, "Four Score and Seven Years Ago..." should have said, "Fah scah and sevin yahrs ago...." John Ostapkovich of KYW Newsradio did read a part of the Gettysburg Address with a twang, and Leibiger went on to explain that you can take the boy out of the south but you can't take the south out of the boy. He also told Ostapkovich that Mary Todd Lincoln had seven brothers and brothers-in-law who fought for the Confederacy, which didn't make her popular in Washington.