Observant observer ALO one-ups me - maybe

In case you haven't discovered them, I'm joined in cyberspace by several other Lincoln buffs who blog. We all have a unique perspective on Lincoln and have covered a variety of different Lincoln-related topics during this bicentennial year. Each of us stays on the lookout for things we think the rest of you will enjoy and, interestingly enough, we don't often duplicate each other's efforts.

Sometimes, we pick on or tease one another - in private or online. We're pretty darned supportive of each other and aren't particularly competitive. Today, however, my buddy at The State Journal-Register, Mike Kienzler, who blogs as The Abraham Lincoln Observer (ALO), poked a little fun my way. He found a really bizarre story about an athlete who, believe it or not, had Abraham Lincoln tattooed on his neck. ALO shared it in his blog - with the challenge, "Ann Tracy Mueller, top this.

I didn't know we were having a competition. You be the judges. Here are the cards in our latest hand.

• Lincoln Buff 2 (aka Ann Tracy Mueller): Knox College Lincoln Studies Center gets a National Endowment for the Humanities grant of darned near a million bucks, which will aid Lincoln studies and promote the Lincoln legacy for years to come
• ALO (aka Mike Kienzler): Some overpaid jock spends his money inking his body up. It just so happens the image he chooses is Lincoln. This dude will be washed up in a few years and his body art long forgotten, but Lincoln scholars not yet born will use the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, Herndon's Lincoln and other Lincoln Studies research.

I don't know, Mike. The tat is cool, but I think my hand trumps yours. Nice try.

Lincoln's gone digital in a big way

Want to know where to find Lincoln? Ask a Lincoln scholar.

Matthew Pinsker, the Brian Pohanka Chair of Civil War History at Dickinson College and author of the book "Lincoln's Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers' Home," has been hard at work of late on a variety of digital Lincoln projects. He talks about them in his latest blog post.

Pinsker also recently contributed to a special Lincoln issue of the Journal of American History. You'll want to be sure to check out the section, "Building the Digital Lincoln," made possible thanks to a partnership between the Journal of American History and the House Divided Project at Dickinson College. This nifty article tells you everything you ever wanted to know about doing Lincoln research in the digital age.

As I told Dr. Pinsker when a friend first shared it with me, "WOW!" It's truly unbelievable how much Lincoln material is available right from the comfort of you computer. You'll want to save it as a favorite and go to it often. I know I will. Thanks JAH and Dr. Pinsker. Great stuff!

So that you can find Building the Digital Lincoln later, I've added a link in my Study Lincoln sidebar on the left side of this blog.