A statue called The Young Lincoln can be seen in the rotunda of the Los Angeles Spring Street Courthouse, and it’s getting quite a bit of renewed attention.  It’s an odd resurgence for a statue unveiled in 1941 and paid for by the Federal Works Agency.  It is eight feet tall and made of Indiana limestone.  The sculptor, James Lee Hansen, won the commission and was paid about $7K (roughly $125K by today’s standards).  It depicts a young Lincoln barefoot and shirtless with a well-defined physique, wearing jeans and with a thumb in one of the belt loops.  I’ve always thought this was the strapping young lawyer during those four years he lived with Joshua Speed, with whom he also shared a double bed.  While I cannot confirm that as the inspiration, the artist has left us some insight.  When asked why he had Lincoln half-naked, he said, “From a sculpturing standpoint, it’s better to show the body without any clothes.  That’s why I left ‘em off.”  At the time of the unveiling, some claimed the torso bore a striking resemblance to Hansen himself.  Modern critics have called it everything from pornographic to the embodiment of Gavin Newsom.  But only Kimberly Guilfoyle knows for sure.

Speaking of politicians (and this is an awkward transition, no matter how you slice it), I’ve successfully avoided writing about disgraced former representative George Santos.  I didn’t even tell you when he started doing Cameo videos as his drag persona Kitara.  But I can now reveal that he’s married to Matheus “Matt” Gerard.  The most surprising part of this story is not that they met on Grindr (which he admits is “pretty sad”) – it’s that they got married way back in 2021!  Funny how nobody unearthed that piece of dish when they were investigating him.