11 responses to “Gee, thanks.”

1. 

   Bryan DeVasher said on June 25, 2008 at 12:47 pm

   I lived in the Fort for five years and never visited the Lincoln Museum. Now I wish I had. But when you’re single and 25 and the beer is flowing freely at Henry’s and O’Sullivan’s, you just never get around to it. (I also never visited Old Fort Wayne, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss much there.)

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2. 

   Bob G. said on June 25, 2008 at 2:29 pm

   Nance:
   I’m originally from Philly (home of the cheesesteak), and I’ve told the missus time and again EXACTLY how much Fort Wayne is trying to toss out the “babies with the bath water” aka The Lincoln Museum…

   Philly’s not bad, if you LIKE up to 400 homicides a year and corrupt politicians.

   And as for Washington…
   Two words come to mind:
   THE LOOP.
   (‘Nuff said there)

   😉

   B.G.

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3. 

   brian stouder said on June 25, 2008 at 2:40 pm

   It is a very great cultural loss, and many of us feel it viscerally.

   I suppose that all the local universities, with their seemingly endless building/expansion plans will bring in interesting speakers and personages from time to time, and that is a good thing for our local culture, and our future.

   But Abraham Lincoln comes from hereabouts (Kentucky, southern Indiana, and, most especially, Illinois). This whole idea of ‘wanting a larger audience’ is horse shit. They could re-locate the museum to the grounds of the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo, and rack 500,000 visitors/year….and really, that is no more ridiculous than dumping the painstakingly assembled collections into the vast and cavernous Library of Congress or the Smithsonian, there to molder.

   Where is it written that everything worth seeing MUST be in the most populous places? Why not leave at least some of our more worthwhile things scattered across the nation?

   I absolutely will visit Washington DC someday, and when I do, whatever else we see – we’ll stop at the Lincoln Memorial, and reread the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural, and ponder the life and legacy of the 16th president.

   But we won’t seek out whatever dark corner they relegate bits and pieces of the once-glorious Fort Wayne Lincoln Museum. (I can envision a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and one of Lincoln’s ink wells, encased beneath the Spirit of St Louis, and next to a moon rock)

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4. 

   Julie Robinson said on June 25, 2008 at 4:27 pm

   With the removal of the museum, Lincoln National should be required to remove Lincoln from its name. It has no right to use his image of integrity when it has none of its own.

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5. 

   Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 25, 2008 at 10:16 pm

   Second Julie’s motion . . . hearing no further discussion, time to tally the votes — Lincoln National is hereby voted off the Island of Abe-ness, and will henceforth be known as “National National.”

   Their new CEO could be Major Major, and they’d have a Department of Redundancy Dept.

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6. 

   Carolyn said on June 26, 2008 at 12:50 am

   Ah, the lock of Lincoln’s hair. I have a fond memory of encountering the mysterious relic on a fourth-grade field trip. Back when the museum was on, what, Calhoun Street?
   Years later at ye ole News-Sentinel I had the assignment of showing a west-coast corporate big around the Summit City one morning. I spent days planning the tour – Embassy Theatre, Botanical Garden, scagliola-filled 100-year-old courthouse. We started at the Lincoln Museum and never got any farther. Turned out the guy was a Lincoln nut. He freaked when he saw the wallet. And I survived to work another day.
   Even from 1,000 miles away, I’ll miss that place.

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7. 

   moe99 said on June 26, 2008 at 1:42 am

   Ok, OT but does no one go to the symphony any more? The Detroit Symphony had a guest conductor recently that was a robot:

   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7402363.stm

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8. 

   Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 26, 2008 at 9:03 am

   The fact that a robot can conduct a simple piece in proper rhythm, no marvel that. But — a robot designed by the Honda Motor Company, was the unlikely conductor at the Detroit

   [stop right there!]

   Detroit? In Detroit they let a Honda robot direct their . . .

   Symphony Orchestra? I can only imagine the development office conversations over that one.

   Guys, you did check with the development office, right?

   But if GM and Ford aren’t likely sources of donations, and Honda is, then i guess that’s no longer a surprise either. It’s just the idea of Honda getting a PR bump in the heart of Detroit’s old guard havens — as Nancy keeps telling us’ns who don’t live there, Detroit is changing.

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9. 

   nancy said on June 26, 2008 at 9:46 am

   It’s especially ironic considering a factoid I learned in researching a story recently:

   The DSO nearly went under during the depression, and were only kept afloat by the willingness of the Ford Motor Co. to sponsor a regular Saturday radio broadcast. When a certain violinist’s firstborn came along, father was proud to show his gratitude in a very public way.

   And that’s how the world welcomed… [Paul Harvey voice] … Francis Ford Coppola.

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10. 

    brian stouder said on June 26, 2008 at 9:56 am

    [Paul Harvey voice continued]

    Nancy Nall………………………………………….

    GoodDAY!

    PS – say, when it comes to “fair use” issues and copyrights and trademarks, can a person’s distinctive voice and sayings be appropriated?

    A local car lot has a series of radio spots that makes it seem like they have the endorsement of Paul Harvey! They struck me as funny, at first….and for all I know they might be paying for the ‘likeness’, but it made me wonder (if they’re NOT) whether the radio station airing the spots might also be liable, for any infringement

    PPS – Corporate citizenship? Hah! that’s so ’77 years ago’!!

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11. 

    Dave said on June 27, 2008 at 2:08 pm

    Oh, Brian, I hate those commercials and can’t imagine how they thought that’d sell cars.

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