Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Worried that Hollywood doesn't have enough vampires? Never fear, Seth Grahame-Smith is on the job. On top of his scarified Abraham Lincoln vampires, he also tries his hand at funny vampires in Dark Shadows, Grahame-Smith's movie adaptation of the cult classic vampire soap opera. (Source.)
Crazy times in the Civil War. After the battle of Shiloh, a bunch of wounded soldiers noticed that their wounds were glowing at night; and back at the medical tents, these "Angel Glow" wounds healed faster and better than normal. We now know the science behind it all, but we'd rather think of it as a mystery. That way it seems like this brain snack is more relevant than it actually is.
Our super-helpful author mentions what happens to Abe's body after the assassination: a special funeral train gets sent around the country on a long, slow trip back to Illinois, so that all the mourners can come see him; some grave robbers try to steal the body (natch); and the body is reburied in a cement tomb. Guess what? It's all fact.
In addition to actually leading the country through the Civil War and (not actually) fighting vampires, Lincoln found time to write poetry. Grahame-Smith wasn't making that one up. (Before you go calling Lincoln a dork, remember, there were no cute cats on YouTube back then.) (Source.)
No vampires (boo), but on the 200th anniversary of Abe's birth, some people planned a reenactment of his flatboat journeys down the Mississippi. Almost as good as blood-sucking monsters. (Source.)