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Show crude fireplace to work problems prob-lems with a piece of charcoal, legend says again. So why, on Lincoln's second-best birthday, birth-day, don't we close the offices and hold a charcoal close-out? close-out? SHALL WE JUST throw away the calendar and mark off the days, as they pass, on the wall? Don't let me be startin' anything. any-thing. I think both Washington and Lincoln are our greatest great-est A m e r i c a n s, but I believe they are equally great. And by the way, when's Ted Moss' birthday? Maybe, 50yearsfrom now . . . Checking reveals one gleam of hope. My birthday, Dec. 22, falls this year on a Saturday. We don't need to start planning ahead on closing Monday, Dec. 24. -Mac. WHAT A WAY to start the week. I hate Mondays, anyhow and here 'tis another of those illegal holidays. Some places are closed, some are open, and who's to know which? But what's got me really riled is the "legal" closing for Washington Wash-ington and not for Lincoln. Hundreds Hun-dreds of debates have been held on the relative importance of our two "greatest" Americans, and for me they are of equal import. Why give George the big deal while we give Abe comparative com-parative insignificance? True, Washington was the "father of his country." But Lincoln saved the country from falling apart. Washington brought his mob through the rigors of Valley Forge but he was behind the lines sleeping warmly. (You should see the number of old houses in New Jersey marked "Washington Slept Here". George might have slept around a lot.) OUR COUNTRY'S father was rich and big and handsome. Honest Abe was poor and lanky and ugly. Is this any reason for the stores to hold a cherry-pickin' cherry-pickin' sale? I admire Washington no end. But I admire Lincoln every bit as much. And we never have holidays in a newspaper office, anyhow. Whether we idolize GW on Feb. 22, when we should, or Feb. 19, when some lobbyist decided it would be a good idea, makes little difference. Georgie-Boy cut down a cherry tree, legend says. And ,Abe Lincoln lay in front of a |