| | i was talking to a friend recently and we got to talking about teeth. hair grows, finger nails grow, skin regenerates. but you only get two sets of teeth. and once that second set is gone, you're outta luck. anyway, she said that she had crashed her bike when she was in high school and knocked out her four front, top teeth. her family couldn't afford to have fakes made, or implants implanted, so she had to go to school and everywhere else with a four-tooth gap in her smile.
she was talking to her grandmother on the phone, and her grandmother told her something interesting. apparently, when my friend's mom was an infant, she kicked her mother, my friend's grandmother, in the mouth, knocking out two of her front teeth. within six months, two new teeth found their way through her gums, completing her full set. by some stroke of luck, or genes, my friend's grandmother had an extra set of those teeth.
well, around six months went by, and my friend noticed three new teeth growing through her gums. they're still there today. she had a fourth made and implanted years ago. but, hey, three outta four ain't bad. and, while she tought it was freakish, i assured her that it was, indeed, really cool. she calls it the shark gene.
so, i got interested in this apparent shark gene. i started doing some research and found that it does occur every once in a while, though very rarely. like, one in hundred of millions. but, i also found out about one special case of the so-called shark gene. Abraham Lincoln. and what an amazing story it is.
these pieces of his biography are, for some reason, not well known. but they date back to his first attempts at politics. as we've heard, he grew up dirt poor, in a one room house, with a mud floor. he would occasionally walk upwards of 20 miles just to get a new book. he attended school for no more than a third grade education, yet disciplined himself with the a university curriculum. as a child, no matter how underprivileged, was known for his ear-to-ear smile.
when honest abe was 23 years old, he ran for a position on the illinois general assembly. he had hopes of expanding transport and trade on the sangamon river. that is, until his campaign brough him to the route of that very river. the steam tank of a steamboat exploded and spooked his horse onto two legs. lincoln was thrown from his horse and landed face-first into a rock. the rock knocked out around half of his 32 teeth and chipped most of the rest.
with no teeth and danger in the river, lincoln dropped out of the assembly race almost immediately. he traveled to new salem, where he ran a general store and subsisted on oatmeal for three meals a day. he spoke to no one. he wasn't married and had few friends.
around two years after his accident, the back of lincoln's gums, inhabited by shards of his molars, began to hurt. within a week, the remaining pieces of his adult teeth were falling out daily. and, sure enough, new teeth were budding. within a month, half his mouth was speckled with white. and, within three months, new teeth were growing throughout his mouth. after six months, lincoln had grown and entire third set of teeth. apparently, the shark gene was strong with him.
eight years, later, lincoln won a seat on the state legislature. and, a few years after that, he passed the bar. he soon met mary todd, who would become his wife. he won the presidential election of 1860. shortly before his assassination in 1865, he was recorded as saying that he would have still been a general store clerk had it not been for his miracle third set of teeth. no emancipation proclamation, no transcontinental railroad and no gettysburg address had lincoln not bee one of the few people in the world blessed with the shark gene.
of course, after years of embarassment and silence, lincoln never again got used to having a full mouth of teeth. so, he never really smiled. i was actually able to find only one image of lincoln with a smile on his face.
after a tale like that, isn't it refreshing?
-matt
"be excellent to each other. and, party on, dudes!"
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| | Posted 7/7/2007 11:22 PM - 62 Views - 2 eProps - 2 comments
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