Honest Abe was no Mark Twain

Sometimes it's a little strange the things you hear down at McCarthy's. Not to say you can't have entertaining and enlightening conversations, but I just spent a good half hour talking to a guy who swore to me up and down that he was reading Abraham Lincoln's autobiography and it was uncanny how much detail paralleled the life of Samuel Clemens!! I kept trying to drop hints facts that would tie the story the fella was telling me to Clemens but he refused to take the bait!

HE: "Dude, my Mom gave me this great book. It's the autobiography of Abraham Lincoln."

ME: "Cool, is that an old book or when did it come out?"

HE: "Oh, it's old."

ME: "It must be a great story."

HE: "Oh, yeah, little known fact that Lincoln spent a significant part of his childhood living on the southern part of the Mississippi River, going up and down, learning all about the craft of driving a riverboat."

ME: [Alarm bells going off.] Are you sure that wasn't Samuel Clemens?"

HE: "No way dude, it's Abraham Lincoln's autobiography."

ME: "You know there's a brand new book out that's called 'The Autobiography of Samuel Clemens' right?"

HE: "Dude, Abe Lincoln. Did you know that Abe Lincoln outlived every single person in his family?"

ME: "Huh, so did Samuel Clemens. He talks about how terrible it was in his recently released autobiography."

HE: "Wow, weird. Did you know that Abe Lincoln was basically clinically depressed his whole life, and I believe his wife committed suicide?"

ME: "Same with Sam!"

HE: "Weird."

ME: "Yep."

I'm convinced the guy is reading the recently published book -- of which I have a copy but have but have not yet read -- called "The Autobiography of Samuel Clemens."

Is it really possible to read a book and not realize about whom it is you are reading? I could be wrong, but did those two men really have such parallel lives?