By MACKENZIE CARPENTER, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When Abraham Lincoln was confronted with unflattering press editorials during the Civil War that described him as "a blockhead," "a moron" and a "widow maker," he shrugged it off with a joke.

"Having an hour to spare on Sunday I read this batch of editorials and when I was through reading I asked myself, 'Abraham Lincoln, are you a man or a dog?' " he was quoted as saying.

It was a stunt that transfixed the world for a few hours, and while a Colorado couple is denying it was a hoax, a trial appears likely, if not a plea bargain, or fines, or jail -- and then, maybe, a reality show.

Several times a week, in that brief lull that comes after school ends and before the nightly supper-homework ritual begins, several mothers gather on a front porch in suburban Pittsburgh for what they laughingly call "wine hour."

One has four wives and likes to dance during his campaign speeches. Another, who is 72, likes to cavort with 17-year-old girls. Still another has a passion for color -- as in Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.

On an improbably perfect summer Monday morning, Vic Vatalaro is puttering along on the Monongehala River in his Ranger Z-21 Comanche, peering at an oblong blob on his Lowrance HDS-5 GPS fish-finder.

Is Washington, D.C., the new New York?
That's the word from the cultural temperature-takers -- Vogue magazine and The Daily Beast's Tina Brown, for starters. Yes, the nation's capital seems a different place -- hipper, happier, more energized -- than it did 100 days ago when Barack Obama moved into the White House.
At least its mayor thinks so.

At noon, she sparkled in daisy yellow -- or was it gold? -- while after dark, she was flirty in a cream one-shoulder gown that showed off her most famous feature, those strong shoulders and fabulously toned bare arms.

You can "Twitter" Friday's presidential debate on your cell phone. You can watch live streaming video of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain jousting about Iraq or Wall Street -- and then rewind it. You will even find searchable clips of the event online.

The "Mommy Wars" -- the seemingly endless debate over whether mothers should work or stay home with their kids -- erupted into a new arena this week: the Xcel Center in Minneapolis, where Republicans were preparing to nominate Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

On the face of it, "Yummy Mummy" is a loathsome term. Popularized by the British press in reference to the slim, chic, youthful business-magnate mother of Prince William's girlfriend, Kate Middleton, it soon gained broader currency, becoming yet one more way for today's mothers to feel guilty about not doing it all.