Oh Mr. President!

November 10, 2011 10:22 PM

I heard something like this. Abraham Lincoln said he wanted to paint the bathroom green and his wife wanted to paint it yellow "so we compromised and painted it yellow". Did anything like this ever happen? Who? Where? When? I have a friend who would like to use this in a wedding speech. My google fu fails me.
posted by snowjoe to Human Relations (10 answers total)

Doesn't sound remotely like something Lincoln would say. Maybe Calvin Coolidge?
posted by empath at 10:33 PM on November 10, 2011

Best answer: Here's your quote.
posted by empath at 10:36 PM on November 10, 2011

This is one of those instances where I wouldn't let a trivial thing like "facts" get in the way of a good speech/story. Are people in the audience going to be writing blog posts about how inaccurate the toasts were? No. They just want to get to the cake and dancing!
posted by sbutler at 10:37 PM on November 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks empath! If it's written down somewhere it's good enough for me!
posted by snowjoe at 10:44 PM on November 10, 2011

I don't think it was a quote from Lincoln, but instead just a common joke. Another close one is "Compromise: An amiable arrangement between husband and wife whereby they agree to let her have her own way."
posted by Deflagro at 11:13 PM on November 10, 2011 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Yeah, please don't attribute it to Lincoln; it's impossible to rid the world of misattributions, but there's no point deliberately adding to them. It's a good joke on its own.
posted by languagehat at 6:28 AM on November 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: There are a few references to a(n apocryphal?) story about Lincoln's time as a lawyer in Illinois.
posted by nightwood at 7:48 AM on November 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

That's a pretty good pull on finding that quote, I'm impressed.
posted by empath at 8:14 AM on November 11, 2011

The internet is full of misattributed quotes. Odds are it's not a Lincoln quote.
posted by Obscure Reference at 10:32 AM on November 11, 2011

Response by poster: So I got a quote, a possible Lincoln related quote, and languagehat's polite counsel that I not misattribute it to President Lincoln, which I will not do. So I win, Ask Metafilter wins again, and the wedding party gets a good joke.
posted by snowjoe at 5:59 PM on November 11, 2011