Posts Tagged With: Levity

The Lincoln Assassination on this Day (September 12 – September 25)

Taking inspiration from one of my favorite books, John Wilkes Booth: Day by Day by Art Loux, I’m documenting a different Lincoln assassination or Booth family event each day on my Twitter account. In addition to my daily #OTD (On This Day) tweets, each Sunday I’ll be posting them here for the past week. If you click on any of the pictures in the tweet, it will take you to its individual tweet page on Twitter where you can click to make the images larger and easier to see. Since Twitter limits the number of characters you can type in a tweet, I often include text boxes as pictures to provide more information. I hope you enjoy reading about the different events that happened over the last week.

NOTE: After weeks of creating posts with multiple embedded tweets, this site’s homepage now tends to crash from trying to load all the different posts with all the different tweets at once. So, to help fix this, I’ve made it so that those viewing this post on the main page have to click the “Continue Reading” button below to load the full post with tweets. Even after you open the post in a separate page, it may still take awhile for the tweets to load completely. Using the Chrome browser seems to be the best way to view the tweets, but may still take a second to switch from just text to the whole tweet with pictures.

Continue reading

Categories: History, OTD | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Lincoln Assassination On This Day (June 13 – June 19)

Taking inspiration from one of my favorite books, John Wilkes Booth: Day by Day by Art Loux, I’m documenting a different Lincoln assassination or Booth family event each day on my Twitter account. In addition to my daily #OTD (On This Day) tweets, each Sunday I’ll be posting them here for the past week. If you click on any of the pictures in the tweet, it will take you to its individual tweet page on Twitter where you can click to make the images larger and easier to see. Since Twitter limits the number of characters you can type in a tweet, I often include text boxes as pictures to provide more information. I hope you enjoy reading about the different events that happened over the last week.

NOTE: After weeks of creating posts with multiple embedded tweets, this site’s homepage now tends to crash from trying to load all the different posts with all the different tweets at once. So, to help fix this, I’ve made it so that those viewing this post on the main page have to click the “Continue Reading” button below to load the full post with tweets. Even after you open the post in a separate page, it may still take awhile for the tweets to load completely. Using the Chrome browser seems to be the best way to view the tweets, but may still take a second to switch from just text to the whole tweet with pictures.

Continue reading

Categories: History, Levity, OTD | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Lincoln Assassination On This Day (February 1 – February 6)

Taking inspiration from one of my favorite books, John Wilkes Booth: Day by Day by Art Loux, I’m documenting a different Lincoln assassination or Booth family event each day on my Twitter account. In addition to my daily #OTD (On This Day) tweets, each Sunday I’ll be posting them here for the past week. If you click on any of the pictures in the tweet, it will take you to its individual tweet page on Twitter where you can click to make the images larger and easier to see. Since Twitter limits the number of characters you can type in a tweet, I often include text boxes as pictures to provide more information. I hope you enjoy reading about the different events that happened over the last week.

NOTE: After weeks of creating posts with multiple embedded tweets, this site’s homepage now tends to crash from trying to load all the different posts with all the different tweets at once. So, to help fix this, I’ve made it so that those viewing this post on the main page have to click the “Continue Reading” button below to load the full post with tweets. Even after you open the post in a separate page, it may still take awhile for the tweets to load completely. Using the Chrome browser seems to be the best way to view the tweets, but may still take a second to switch from just text to the whole tweet with pictures.

Continue reading

Categories: History, OTD | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A “Thomas Jones” Carol

With the holidays almost here, it’s time for another installment of Boothie Christmas caroling where we revise a classic Christmas Carol into a Lincoln assassination themed Boothie Carol. Today’s song is a revised version of, “Silver Bells”. I hope you all enjoy it in the humorous manner in which it is intended.

Thomas Jones Christmas Carol

“Thomas Jones”

As sung to, “Silver Bells”

Easter morning, without warning,
Sam Cox comes down my street.
In the air there’s a feeling of danger.
I start going, without knowing
Why his dad wants to meet,
But I get to Rich Hill and I hear:

Thomas Jones, (Thomas Jones)
Thomas Jones, (Thomas Jones)
I’ve hidden Booth in the thicket
Lend a hand (Lend a hand).
Help this man (Help this man).
Make sure he gets river bound.

When I find him, Herold’s with him,
So I say to them both,
“We must wait for the troopers to leave here.”
He wants papers. I say, “Later.”
Then I give him my oath
No amount could cause me to betray

John Wilkes Booth, (John Wilkes Booth)
John Wilkes Booth, (John Wilkes Booth)
It’s not quite time to go boating.
Hunker down (Hunker down).
Don’t be found (Don’t be found).
Soon it will be rowing day!

Previous years’ Boothie Carols can be read here:
“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Play” / It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
“We Bruti” / We, Three Kings of Orient Are
“Wilkes Booth the Head Conspirator” / Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
“Lewis Powell is Coming For You” / Santa Claus is Coming to Town
“Little Doctor Mudd” / Little Drummer Boy
“Boothie Wonderland” / Winter Wonderland

Categories: History, Levity | Tags: , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The Boston Corbett Supper Club

I stumbled across this oddity on eBay tonight. It is a menu from a restaurant called the Boston Corbett Supper Club.

Boston Corbett Supper Club Menu 1

Boston Corbett Supper Club Menu 2

The menu features a drawing of the avenger of Lincoln on the front and, on the inside, a few of the menu items are named after the famous sergeant from the 16th NY Cavalry. Corbett’s honorary dishes include a salad called the Boston Corbett Special containing a variety of cut vegetables, perhaps alluding to Corbett’s expertise with sharp blades. The Boston Corbett Quiche is “baked in a delicate crust” not unlike Corbett’s delicate mind. And under the heading of “Boston Corbett Favorites” is what must be the sergeant’s signature dish, Chicken Corbett, which is “broiled to a golden brown” not unlike John Wilkes Booth in the Garrett barn.

The rear of the menu contains a short biography of Boston Corbett’s life.

Boston Corbett Supper Club Menu 3Noticeably missing from this brief biography is any mention of Corbett’s paranoia induced nervous breakdown in 1887 in which he made threats and waved a gun at representatives in the Kansas state house. For this mania he was committed to an asylum before managing to escape into oblivion.

After a little searching, I found that the Boston Corbett Supper Club had been located in Concordia, Kansas. Starting in 1878, Boston Corbett resided just north of Concordia in a dugout structure built into a hill. I drove out to Corbett’s dugout home, visiting other sites along the way, last summer. You can see my images and videos from that trip here.

The Boston Corbett Supper Club was used as a venue for wedding rehearsal dinners and receptions in the Concordia area and even supported Concordia’s annual 4th of July fireworks display. Unfortunately, a supper club based around the brave avenger of Lincoln who was also a partially crazed eunuch couldn’t make ends meet and so “Providence directed” it to close in the early 1990’s.

Though we missed out on our chance to dine at the Boston Corbett Supper Club, its menu has me thinking about opening my own Lincoln assassination restaurant in the future. For possible dishes I’ve thought of: Our American Couscous, Sic Semper Tilapia, Seward Skewers, George’s Beer-Battered Yellow Croaker, Physician’s Pie a la Mudd, and John Wilkes Bologna Sandwich.

Let me know your ideas for menu items in the comments below.

Categories: History, Levity | Tags: , , | 10 Comments

Boothie Wonderland

With the holidays upon us, it’s time once again for our annual tradition of revising a classic Christmas Carol into a Lincoln assassination themed Boothie Carol. This year’s song is a remixed version of the classic, “Winter Wonderland”. I hope you all enjoy it in the humorous manner in which it is intended.

Boothiewonderland

Boothie Wonderland

As sung to, “Winter Wonderland”

A gun shot rings, are you listenin’?
In the lane, an assassin’s blitzin’
A terrible sight,
He slips through the night.
Fleeing in a Boothie Wonderland.

Far away, is his young guide,
“Old King Lincoln, has now died.”
They reflect on his deeds,
While exhausting their steeds.
Fleeing in a Boothie Wonderland.

At Surratt House they can get some whiskey,
From a man who’s had too much, himself.

Then they’ll find a doc who’ll fix him for free,
And later say he was dressed like an elf.

Later on, they’ll get tired,
As they wait, without a fire.
They’ll be dirty and bleak,
Waiting almost a week,
To go Boating in a Boothie Wonderland.

In Port Conway, they will meet three draftees,
Of the cause that Booth hoped to revive.
They lead them to the Garretts’ who were quite pleased,
To aid Booth, a wounded soldier in disguise.

But they’re found, ain’t it thrillin’?
With smoke and fire, the barn is fillin’.
The guide will bail out,
His master will pout.
Shot in a Boothie Wonderland

Previous years’ Boothie Carols can be read here:
“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Play” / It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
“We Bruti” / We, Three Kings of Orient Are
“Wilkes Booth the Head Conspirator” / Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
“Lewis Powell is Coming For You” / Santa Claus is Coming to Town
“Little Doctor Mudd” / Little Drummer Boy

Categories: Levity | Tags: , | 6 Comments

What’s Missing? Episode 2

Once again it’s time to test your Boothie knowledge, resourcefulness, and observational skills with a game called, What’s Missing?

What's Missing Icon

Below you will find 20 images all related in some way to the Lincoln assassination story. Most of them have previously appeared on this website, either in the Picture Galleries or in one of the many posts. Your job is to look at the images carefully to see if you can determine “What’s Missing?” from the image. You can click on each image to enlarge it a bit and get a better look. When you’re stumped, or ready to check your answer, click on the “Answer” button below each image. Good luck!

What’s Missing A:

What's Missing A

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What’s Missing B:

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What’s Missing C:

What's Missing C

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What’s Missing D:

What's Missing D

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What’s Missing E:

What's Missing E

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What’s Missing F:

What's Missing F

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What’s Missing G:

What's Missing G

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What’s Missing H:

What's Missing H

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What’s Missing I:

What's Missing I

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What’s Missing J:

What's Missing J

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What’s Missing K:

What's Missing K

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What’s Missing L:

What's Missing L

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What’s Missing M:

What's Missing M

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What’s Missing N:

What's Missing N

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What’s Missing O:

What's Missing O

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What’s Missing P:

What's Missing P

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What’s Missing Q:

What's Missing Q

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What’s Missing R:

What's Missing R

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What’s Missing S:

What's Missing S

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What’s Missing T:

What's Missing T

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So how did you do? Let us know in the comments section below.

Categories: Levity | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

John Wilkes Booth Crossword Puzzle

In April of 1980, Americana magazine published an article about Richard and Kellie Gutman.  The pair had just completed their groundbreaking study on all of the known photographs of John Wilkes Booth.  Their final product was the volume John Wilkes Booth Himself.  The article highlighted the Gutmans’ six year search for Booth photographs in collections around the nation and also discussed some of the Gutmans’ own personal Booth treasures.  Coincidentally, one item that formerly belonged to the Gutmans was an over-sized autograph of John Wilkes Booth to his brother Junius, which sold at auction for $14,000 ($17,500 after the 25% buyer’s premium) on January 24th.

The article was well written and helped bring awareness of “Boothophiles” (as the article termed them), like the Gutmans, to a wider audience.  Even back then, Richard Gutman expertly explained what it meant to be a Boothophile/Boothie/BoothBuff stating:

“We’re not apologists for Booth.  The enormity of his deed precludes that.  But we are fascinated by Booth as a romantic, enigmatic character – by how a talented actor became unhinged enough to assassinate Lincoln.”

If you have a couple minutes to spare, I would highly recommend reading the three page article about the Gutmans which can be found here.

Due to the inclusion of the Booth article, the man in charge of creating the crossword puzzle for that issue of Americana decided to make the puzzle John Wilkes Booth themed.  While not every clue is related to John Wilkes Booth, I thought it might be entertaining to post the crossword puzzle here for you all to print out and try on your own.  Consider it another bit of levity and a nice rainy day Boothie activity like the coloring page I posted awhile back.

John Wilkes Booth Crossword Puzzle - Americana Magazine - April 1980

Click the puzzle to download (.pdf) or print

Have fun and let me know how you do!


P.S. How times have changed. At the end of the Gutman article was the following box of information:

IMG_7428

While the Surratt Society still puts on their excellent John Wilkes Booth Escape Route Tours (BERTs), the price has gone up in the 35 years since this article was published.  The price is now $80 for Surratt Society members and $85 for non-members.  Also, I would have loved to have been around to pick up multiple copies of John Wilkes Booth Himself for the original price of $18.50.  Nowadays, the asking price for this book is about $300 and up.  It just goes to show you, forget buying stocks and bonds, the best long term investments are in Booths!

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: , | 3 Comments

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