Rick Beard emerges

Shadowy master of all things Lincoln, Rick Beard, has just recently, been discovered working out of a a small office in the Lincoln Museum behind doors marked "emergency exit only." I would say he's shy.

His first take on the Lincoln Museum was reassuring: "If all you ever have to worry about is whether the holograms are working, then it's probably not the place..." [for a big-league docent].

But they began flattering him and waving money. He decided these inveiglers were people "without personal agendas, people he could work for and with." How lovely that someone could innocently mouth those words in this day and age. Does my heart good.

And he's a quick study too. He's cramming with Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, no less. So he says. One can understand how he might add, "I'm more of a museum person than a library person..."

The reporter who uncovered Beard had enough sense to ask him about his other project "The Civil War 150: The Sesquicentennial Initiative," and Rick was good enough to answer that "He's also reading a few books about the Civil War."

Might come in handy. Has some Lincoln content as a bonus. Could give you an idea for a new hologram, even.