mel64us
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Post by mel64us on Feb 8, 2019 22:12:54 GMT -5
I always enjoyed Mark Twain's novels and short stories. A few years ago, my brother and I researched our family tree and discovered that we are related to Mr. Twain (Samuel Clemens). It seemed to make his writings more interesting to us.
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jackdiamond
Full Member
 
Posts: 860
First Name: Montgomery
Favorite Pipe: Savinelli Lollo
Favorite Tobacco: Davidhoff Flake Medallions. No wait, Semois. No wait, Squadron Leader. Ugh. I dunno.
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Post by jackdiamond on Feb 8, 2019 22:18:56 GMT -5
That's awesome! Mark Twain really was the beginning of truly American literature.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Feb 8, 2019 22:21:32 GMT -5
Literally moments ago I was reading about Twain. I never knew he was a Ginger!
Also, I love his writing. If in life one forgets what it is to be a kid, just pick up Tom or Huck and give it a couple chapters.
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Post by sperrytops on Feb 8, 2019 22:23:25 GMT -5
I always enjoyed Mark Twain's novels and short stories. A few years ago, my brother and I researched our family tree and discovered that we are related to Mr. Twain (Samuel Clemens). It seemed to make his writings more interesting to us. That is really fantastic. I really enjoyed all his works. One of the funniest tongue in cheek writers ever.
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jackdiamond
Full Member
 
Posts: 860
First Name: Montgomery
Favorite Pipe: Savinelli Lollo
Favorite Tobacco: Davidhoff Flake Medallions. No wait, Semois. No wait, Squadron Leader. Ugh. I dunno.
Location:
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Post by jackdiamond on Feb 8, 2019 22:30:35 GMT -5
I always enjoyed Mark Twain's novels and short stories. A few years ago, my brother and I researched our family tree and discovered that we are related to Mr. Twain (Samuel Clemens). It seemed to make his writings more interesting to us. That is really fantastic. I really enjoyed all his works. One of the funniest tongue in cheek writers ever. Our book tastes are really similar, amigo.
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Post by AJ on Feb 8, 2019 23:12:35 GMT -5
I think it great you’ve discovered that you are related to a Mark Twain. The only famous person my family has a connection to is William Shakespeare. My grandfather, many generations back, married Shakespeare’s granddaughter. Close but no cigar...
AJ
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mel64us
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Post by mel64us on Feb 8, 2019 23:56:54 GMT -5
I think it great you’ve discovered that you are related to a Mark Twain. The only famous person my family has a connection to is William Shakespeare. My grandfather, many generations back, married Shakespeare’s granddaughter. Close but no cigar... AJ We are also related to a Captain in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. We don't talk about him much. Seems he was shot for treason.
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Post by Ronv69 on Feb 9, 2019 0:15:01 GMT -5
I am related to William Brewster of Plymouth colony, the Hero of the Siege of Londondary, the Butcher of Schenectady, and according to a family legend, one of the 3 wise men. If you go back long enough everyone is related. I will trade you any two for Mark Twain. 🤠
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Post by Ronv69 on Feb 9, 2019 0:19:02 GMT -5
If you want to read some interesting Twain, then read "Letters From the Earth" and the "Screwtaoe Letters".
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Post by jeffd on Apr 1, 2019 10:23:28 GMT -5
Concerning Tobacco - Mark Twain
As concerns tobacco, there are many superstitions. And the chiefest is this--that there is a STANDARD governing the matter, whereas there is nothing of the kind. Each man's own preference is the only standard for him, the only one which he can accept, the only one which can command him. A congress of all the tobacco-lovers in the world could not elect a standard which would be binding upon you or me, or would even much influence us.
The next superstition is that a man has a standard of his own. He hasn't. He thinks he has, but he hasn't. He thinks he can tell what he regards as a good cigar from what he regards as a bad one--but he can't. He goes by the brand, yet imagines he goes by the flavor. One may palm off the worst counterfeit upon him; if it bears his brand he will smoke it contentedly and never suspect.
Children of twenty-five, who have seven years experience, try to tell me what is a good cigar and what isn't. Me, who never learned to smoke, but always smoked; me, who came into the world asking for a light.
No one can tell me what is a good cigar--for me. I am the only judge. People who claim to know say that I smoke the worst cigars in the world. They bring their own cigars when they come to my house. They betray an unmanly terror when I offer them a cigar; they tell lies and hurry away to meet engagements which they have not made when they are threatened with the hospitalities of my box. Now then, observe what superstition, assisted by a man's reputation, can do. I was to have twelve personal friends to supper one night. One of them was as notorious for costly and elegant cigars as I was for cheap and devilish ones. I called at his house and when no one was looking borrowed a double handful of his very choicest; cigars which cost him forty cents apiece and bore red-and-gold labels in sign of their nobility. I removed the labels and put the cigars into a box with my favorite brand on it--a brand which those people all knew, and which cowed them as men are cowed by an epidemic. They took these cigars when offered at the end of the supper, and lit them and sternly struggled with them--in dreary silence, for hilarity died when the fell brand came into view and started around--but their fortitude held for a short time only; then they made excuses and filed out, treading on one another's heels with indecent eagerness; and in the morning when I went out to observe results the cigars lay all between the front door and the gate. All except one--that one lay in the plate of the man from whom I had cabbaged the lot. One or two whiffs was all he could stand. He told me afterward that some day I would get shot for giving people that kind of cigars to smoke.
Am I certain of my own standard? Perfectly; yes, absolutely --unless somebody fools me by putting my brand on some other kind of cigar; for no doubt I am like the rest, and know my cigar by the brand instead of by the flavor. However, my standard is a pretty wide one and covers a good deal of territory. To me, almost any cigar is good that nobody else will smoke, and to me almost all cigars are bad that other people consider good. Nearly any cigar will do me, except a Havana. People think they hurt my feelings when then come to my house with their life preservers on--I mean, with their own cigars in their pockets. It is an error; I take care of myself in a similar way. When I go into danger--that is, into rich people's houses, where, in the nature of things, they will have high-tariff cigars, red-and-gilt girded and nested in a rosewood box along with a damp sponge, cigars which develop a dismal black ash and burn down the side and smell, and will grow hot to the fingers, and will go on growing hotter and hotter, and go on smelling more and more infamously and unendurably the deeper the fire tunnels down inside below the thimbleful of honest tobacco that is in the front end, the furnisher of it praising it all the time and telling you how much the deadly thing cost--yes, when I go into that sort of peril I carry my own defense along; I carry my own brand--twenty-seven cents a barrel--and I live to see my family again. I may seem to light his red-gartered cigar, but that is only for courtesy's sake; I smuggle it into my pocket for the poor, of whom I know many, and light one of my own; and while he praises it I join in, but when he says it cost forty-five cents I say nothing, for I know better.
However, to say true, my tastes are so catholic that I have never seen any cigars that I really could not smoke, except those that cost a dollar apiece. I have examined those and know that they are made of dog-hair, and not good dog-hair at that.
I have a thoroughly satisfactory time in Europe, for all over the Continent one finds cigars which not even the most hardened newsboys in New York would smoke. I brought cigars with me, the last time; I will not do that any more. In Italy, as in France, the Government is the only cigar-peddler. Italy has three or four domestic brands: the Minghetti, the Trabuco, the Virginia, and a very coarse one which is a modification of the Virginia. The Minghettis are large and comely, and cost three dollars and sixty cents a hundred; I can smoke a hundred in seven days and enjoy every one of them. The Trabucos suit me, too; I don't remember the price. But one has to learn to like the Virginia, nobody is born friendly to it. It looks like a rat- tail file, but smokes better, some think. It has a straw through it; you pull this out, and it leaves a flue, otherwise there would be no draught, not even as much as there is to a nail. Some prefer a nail at first. However, I like all the French, Swiss, German, and Italian domestic cigars, and have never cared to inquire what they are made of; and nobody would know, anyhow, perhaps. There is even a brand of European smoking-tobacco that I like. It is a brand used by the Italian peasants. It is loose and dry and black, and looks like tea-grounds. When the fire is applied it expands, and climbs up and towers above the pipe, and presently tumbles off inside of one's vest. The tobacco itself is cheap, but it raises the insurance. It is as I remarked in the beginning--the taste for tobacco is a matter of superstition. There are no standards--no real standards. Each man's preference is the only standard for him, the only one which he can accept, the only one which can command him.
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Post by toshtego on Apr 1, 2019 10:30:07 GMT -5
I think it great you’ve discovered that you are related to a Mark Twain. The only famous person my family has a connection to is William Shakespeare. My grandfather, many generations back, married Shakespeare’s granddaughter. Close but no cigar... AJ We are also related to a Captain in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. We don't talk about him much. Seems he was shot for treason. You outrank me. We have one Sergeant and one Private from the Continental Army in my family. Both on Bunker Hill.
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Post by jeffd on Apr 1, 2019 10:36:24 GMT -5
I am descendant from lots of peasants, transported debtors, border raiders, religious scholars, and assorted types.
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Post by jeffd on Apr 1, 2019 10:52:46 GMT -5
In the Mark Twain above, multiply all the prices by something like 100 or so to bring it up to today.
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Post by pepesdad1 on Apr 1, 2019 11:53:21 GMT -5
Thanks, Jeff...a really good read and still applies to today's tobacco.
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Post by jeffd on Apr 1, 2019 13:28:07 GMT -5
I love the quote: " I have examined those and know that they are made of dog-hair, and not good dog-hair at that."
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Post by sperrytops on Apr 1, 2019 14:19:19 GMT -5
We are also related to a Captain in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. We don't talk about him much. Seems he was shot for treason. You outrank me. We have one Sergeant and one Private from the Continental Army in my family. Both on Bunker Hill. My family were immigrants around 1900. However my wife's family goes back to the colonial period. Unfortunately they supported the British in the Revolutionary war, the British in the War of 1812, and ran guns to the Confederacy in the Civil War. The ancestor in that case refused to surrender to the US Coast Guard (while carrying a shipment of guns) and was essentially blown to smithereens and he, his ship and all on board went to the bottom of the Gulf. Go figure.
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Post by trailboss on Apr 1, 2019 22:48:04 GMT -5
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Post by jeffd on Apr 2, 2019 15:14:47 GMT -5
A smoking session with Samuel Clements would be a hoot. He spent a lot of time with Ulyssses S Grant and if I recall correctly wrote a multi volume autobiography... Grant was a chain smoker of cigars... that must have been quite a smoky experience! My understanding is that upon Ulysses S Grant's funeral (he died of throat cancer) that someone commented about the evils of Grant's smoking. Twain is supposed to have said, "That is why, andon the advice of my doctor, I am careful to smoke only one cigar at a time."
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Post by clintonvilleleather on Apr 2, 2019 15:30:12 GMT -5
I have lost track of how many times I have read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He and James Thurber always make me laugh!
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Post by Dramatwist on Apr 2, 2019 15:32:33 GMT -5
I love genealogy. Thanks for sharing this stuff.
Turns out that both Valerie and I are descended From Edward the First, King of England. (Incest!)
You may remember him as portrayed by Patrick McGoohan in the movie "Braveheart." Yes, he was a real a**hole.
He built a lot of cool castles, though...
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Post by trailboss on Apr 2, 2019 15:48:07 GMT -5
A smoking session with Samuel Clements would be a hoot. He spent a lot of time with Ulyssses S Grant and if I recall correctly wrote a multi volume autobiography... Grant was a chain smoker of cigars... that must have been quite a smoky experience! My understanding is that upon Ulysses S Grant's funeral (he died of throat cancer) that someone commented about the evils of Grant's smoking. Twain is supposed to have said, "That is why, andon the advice of my doctor, I am careful to smoke only one cigar at a time." Yeah, I am just re-listenenimg to the podcast, Grant smoked 25 cigars per day... mouth and throat cancer.
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Post by Dramatwist on Apr 2, 2019 15:53:13 GMT -5
My understanding is that upon Ulysses S Grant's funeral (he died of throat cancer) that someone commented about the evils of Grant's smoking. Twain is supposed to have said, "That is why, andon the advice of my doctor, I am careful to smoke only one cigar at a time." Yeah, I am just re-listenenimg to the podcast, Grant smoked 25 cigars per day... mouth and throat cancer. ...we all gotta die of something, Charlie...
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Post by trailboss on Apr 2, 2019 16:07:24 GMT -5
He died at 63, pretty close to many of his contemporaries, and he enjoyed his cigars. I certainly couldn’t do it... I probably smoke 25 cigars worth of tobacco in a month at most.
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Post by sperrytops on Apr 2, 2019 16:13:10 GMT -5
I love genealogy. Thanks for sharing this stuff. Turns out that both Valerie and I are descended From Edward the First, King of England. (Incest!) You may remember him as portrayed by Patrick McGoohan in the movie "Braveheart." Yes, he was a real a**hole. He built a lot of cool castles, though... Patrick McGoohan? Did you mean Mel Gibson?
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Post by Dramatwist on Apr 2, 2019 16:15:52 GMT -5
I love genealogy. Thanks for sharing this stuff. Turns out that both Valerie and I are descended From Edward the First, King of England. (Incest!) You may remember him as portrayed by Patrick McGoohan in the movie "Braveheart." Yes, he was a real a**hole. He built a lot of cool castles, though... Patrick McGoohan? Did you mean Mel Gibson? ...no, Mel was the good guy... Patrick was the bad guy...
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Post by sperrytops on Apr 2, 2019 16:17:40 GMT -5
Patrick McGoohan? Did you mean Mel Gibson? ...no, Mel was the good guy... Patrick was the bad guy... Got it, fantastic. Who played the guy that was thrown out the window by Patrick?
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Post by Dramatwist on Apr 2, 2019 16:19:35 GMT -5
...no, Mel was the good guy... Patrick was the bad guy... Got it, fantastic. Who played the guy that was thrown out the window by Patrick? ...not sure who the actor was... wasn't the character one of his son's gay lovers or something? I haven't seen the movie in years. Ed had a whole bunch of kids, and I'm descended from one of the last children who never had a chance at the throne.
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Post by sperrytops on Apr 2, 2019 16:29:25 GMT -5
Got it, fantastic. Who played the guy that was thrown out the window by Patrick? ...not sure who the actor was... wasn't the character one of his son's gay lovers or something? I haven't seen the movie in years. Ed had a whole bunch of kids, and I'm descended from one of the last children who never had a chance at the throne. Yes, I think it was the son's gay lover. Goes to show, never piss off a king. The scene was an amazing portrayal of what an a*****e the guy was. The two boys entered the room where Edward was contemplating next moves on a scale battle field in front of him. Actually planning an attack on the Scots, I suppose. The son's friend began lecturing Edward on what the ancient Romans and Greeks would have done. Edward just looked at him, grabbed him by the belt and threw him out of the window. Several stories up in the castle.
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Post by Dramatwist on Apr 2, 2019 16:33:13 GMT -5
...lest you think I'm joking, here is what my research has uncovered...
Edward I "Longshanks" (My 24th Great-Grandfather.) Edward II Edward III Lionel of Antwerp, First Duke of Clarence Philippa Plantagenet Lady Agnes Mortimer Sir Ralph Kynge Sir John Kynge Sir William Kinge Sir William Ralph Kinge Ann Kinge Ann Collinge Robert Fuller Edward Fuller Samuel Fuller Sr. Samuel Fuller Sgt. Samuel Fuller Waitstill Fuller Thomas Hartford Heath Sr. Adolphus Heath Harriet Heath Sarah Jane Marler Mary Lake Mary Jane Taylor Harriet Emily Owen Raymond Benjamin Crane Me
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Post by sperrytops on Apr 2, 2019 16:38:48 GMT -5
...lest you think I'm joking, here is what my research has uncovered... Edward I "Longshanks" (My 24th Great-Grandfather.) Edward II Edward III Lionel of Antwerp, First Duke of Clarence Philippa Plantagenet Lady Agnes Mortimer Sir Ralph Kynge Sir John Kynge Sir William Kinge Sir William Ralph Kinge Ann Kinge Ann Collinge Robert Fuller Edward Fuller Samuel Fuller Sr. Samuel Fuller Sgt. Samuel Fuller Waitstill Fuller Thomas Hartford Heath Sr. Adolphus Heath Harriet Heath Sarah Jane Marler Mary Lake Mary Jane Taylor Harriet Emily Owen Raymond Benjamin Crane Me Very impressive. You did all that research yourself?
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