“Aside From That, Mrs. Lincoln, How Was The Play?”
“Aside From That, Mrs. Lincoln, How Was The Play?”
Did anyone actually ask Mary Todd Lincoln this question?
Recently, a friend of mine went to an event that ended up being a shitshow — almost quite literally. It was a party that she helped throw, but with a bunch of mishaps that turned it into an open-faced sandwich of disaster.
It was a 12-hour-long event. Sometime around hour four, a person spiked the booze. By the sixth hour, half of the guests decided to leave, a quarter of the guests were drunk, and vomit was hitting the walls at a record pace. It was gross.
She was trying hard not to cry. And yet, people had to ask her how the event was despite her being clearly distressed. I was one of those people who had the stupidity to ask.
It’s worth noting that my friend and I have very similar mannerisms. So, when I asked her, I got a wry answer. My friend Lorraine* looked at me and said, “Aside from the incident, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”
This got me wondering. Did anyone ever actually say this to Mary Todd Lincoln? What’s the deal with this phrase?