Charlie Davis writes:

Pete Smith writes:

As the Lincoln Memorial approaches its 100th anniversary in May of this year, the National Park Service has unveiled a proposal to ensure the preservation of the colossal statue of the nation's 16th president well into its second century. Under a plan announced this morning, the seated marble figure of Abraham Lincoln would be rotated 180 degrees, so that the backside of the statue would face the colonnaded entrance to the memorial.

Preservationists are concerned that the statue, constantly subject to the elements in the open-air memorial and exposed to direct sunlight each morning, is aging unevenly and the front may eventually fade, not unlike DaVinci's The Last Supper or Coolidge's Dogs Playing Poker.

Rather than let nature continue to take a toll on Daniel Chester French's masterpiece, the National Park Service convened a blue-ribbon panel of historic architects, art conservators and HGTV interior decorators to study the process and make recommendations. Their exhaustive report, presented to the National Park Service on President's Day, outlines their preferred alternative for protecting the statue.

In the summer of 2022 the National Park Service would rotate the statue 180 degrees, so that the back of the statue would face the chamber's entrance, and the front of the statue would face the memorial's back wall. This action would not only relieve the front features from ongoing deterioration but would give the public an opportunity to admire some of the lesser-known features of the statue that are often overlooked, including Lincoln's wavy hair and the United States flag draped over the back of the chair upon which Lincoln is seated.

Less popular was the commission's alternate proposal, which would place the statue on a turntable, allowing it to be rotated throughout the day. Officials dismissed the more expensive Lazy Susan Proposal as and

To read the complete article, see:
National Park Service Announces Plan to Turn Abraham Lincoln Statue Around(https://www.nps.gov/nama/linc01.htm)

And today is April Fools Day, a day for the celebration of practical jokes. One of the best was played by The Guardian newspaper in London 1977. They published a 7 page supplement commemorating the anniversary of the independence of San Serriffe, a completely imaginary small island nation in the Indian ocean. The nation consisted of 2 main islands which together form the shape of a semicolon. The larger island was called Upper Case and the southern island called Lower Case. The day it was published The Guardian was flooded with calls for more information, including calls from travel agents and airline companies.

On this day in 1992 NPR announced that Richard Nixon was running for President again. They crafted a fake sound bite of Mr. Nixon saying

To read the complete articles, see:
April fool - San Serriffe: teaching resource of the month from the GNM Archive, April 2012(https://www.theguardian.com/gnmeducationcentre/archive-educational-resource-april-2012)
The Writer's Almanac for Friday, April 1, 2022(https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio/twa-the-writers-almanac-for-april-1-2022/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NUMISMATICS MEETS MODERN FORENSICS(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n13a02.html)