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The last surviving witness to Lincoln’s assassination lived long enough to share his story on TV

Samuel J. Seymour was 95 years old when he appeared on “I’ve Got a Secret.”

lincoln assasination, samuel seymour, john wilkes booth
via Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia

Samuel J. Seymour witnessed the assassination of President Lincoln.

Samuel J. Seymour was one of the approximately 1,700 people at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865, the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He was also the last to live long enough to talk about that historic night on television.

Seymour was 5 years old when he went to see the play “Our American Cousin” with his nurse, Sarah Cook, and Mrs. Goldsboro, the wife of his father's employer.

When Booth shot Lincoln, he pulled the trigger during the biggest laugh of the night so that it wouldn’t be heard. What caught Seymour’s attention was when Booth fell from the balcony after a scuffle with Henry Reed Rathbone.

Chaos erupted in the theater and Seymour was ushered out by his nurse. While they fled he overheard people screaming, "Lincoln's shot! The President is dead!"

"I saw Lincoln slumped forward in his seat," the old man later recalled. "That night I was shot 50 times, at least, in my dreams—and I sometimes relive the horror of Lincoln's assassination, dozing in my rocker as an old codger like me is bound to do."

Two months before Seymour’s death at the age of 95, he appeared on the game show “I've Got a Secret,” where panelists tried to guess his secret: “I saw John Wilkes Booth shoot Abraham Lincoln (April 14, 1865).”

Seymour didn’t speak much during the show but he did make a historic understatement when panelist Jayne Meadows asked if his secret was “a pleasant thing,” to which Seymour replied, “Not very pleasant I don’t think. I was scared to death.”


This article originally appeared on 2.3.23

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Health

Motivation expert explains how two simple words can free you from taking things personally

You don't need to take responsibility for everything and everyone.

via TEDx SF/Flickr and TEDx SF/Flickr

Mel Robinson making a TED Talk.

Towards the end of The Beatles’ illustrious but brief career, Paul McCartney wrote “Let it Be,” a song about finding peace by letting events take their natural course. It was a sentiment that seemed to mirror the feeling of resignation the band had with its imminent demise.

The bittersweet song has had an appeal that has lasted generations and that may be because it reflects an essential psychological concept: the locus of control. “It’s about understanding where our influence ends and accepting that some things are beyond our control,” Jennifer Chappell Marsh, a marriage and family therapist, told The Huffington Post. “We can’t control others, so instead, we should focus on our own actions and responses.”

This idea of giving up control, or the illusion of it, when it does us no good, was perfectly distilled into 2 words that everyone can understand as the “Let Them” theory. Podcast host, author, motivational speaker and former lawyer Mel Robbins explained this theory perfectly in a vial Instagram video.

“I just heard about this thing called the ‘Let Them Theory,’ I freaking love this,” Robbins starts the video.

“If your friends are not inviting you out to brunch this weekend, let them. If the person that you're really attracted to is not interested in a commitment, let them. If your kids do not want to get up and go to that thing with you this week, let them.” Robbins says in the clip. “So much time and energy is wasted on forcing other people to match our expectations.”

“If they’re not showing up how you want them to show up, do not try to force them to change; let them be themselves because they are revealing who they are to you. Just let them – and then you get to choose what you do next,” she continued.

The phrase is a great one to keep in your mental health tool kit because it’s a reminder that, for the most part, we can’t control other people. And if we can, is it worth wasting the emotional energy? Especially when we can allow people to behave as they wish and then we can react to them however we choose.

@melrobbins

Stop wasting energy on trying to get other people to meet YOUR expectations. Instead, try using the “Let Them Theory.” 💥 Listen now on the #melrobbinspodcast!! “The “Let Them Theory”: A Life Changing Mindset Hack That 15 Million People Can’t Stop Talking About” 🔗 in bio #melrobbins #letthemtheory #letgo #lettinggo #podcast #podcastepisode

How you respond to their behavior can significantly impact how they treat you in the future.

It’s also incredibly freeing to relieve yourself of the responsibility of changing people or feeling responsible for their actions. As the old Polish proverb goes, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.”

“Yes! It’s much like a concept propelled by the book ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k.’ Save your energy and set your boundaries accordingly. It’s realizing that we only have “control” over ourselves and it’s so freeing,” 60DaysToLive2012 wrote.

“Let It Be” brought Paul McCartney solace as he dealt with losing his band in a very public breakup. The same state of mind can help all of us, whether it’s dealing with parents living in the past, friends who change and you don’t feel like you know them anymore, or someone who cuts you off in traffic because they’re in a huge rush to go who knows where.

The moment someone gets on your nerves and you feel a jolt of anxiety run up your back, take a big breath and say, “Let them.”


This article originally appeared last year.

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Love Stories

Woman's $3 Goodwill find turns out to be a 70-year-old love story lost inside of a record

Recorded love notes on voice-o-graphs spark search for the couple's family.

Photo credit: Canva

70 year old love story uncovered with woman's $3 Goodwill find

We all love a good bargain. There's nothing quite like getting a compliment on something you recently purchased opening the door for you to say, "thanks, it was only five bucks, can you believe it?!" One of the best places to get a good deal on vintage items are thrift stores like Goodwill. It's easy to walk in there planning to just browse and walk out with a few bags of things you suddenly needed.

When Angelina Palumbo did her Goodwill run to find a few classic records, she expected to bring her purchase home to enjoy some jazz music. But the Cincinnati woman got a little more than she bargained for, now she's on a mission to locate the family of two strangers.

Palumbo has an affinity for old jazz vinyl records and is starting to amass a pretty nice collection. One of the ways she is able to keep up with her hobby of collecting this old school jazz music is to purchase it at thrift stores. This time, her recent rummage through the Goodwill record bin left her with a delightful surprise. Inside the record sleeve were two small records, but not just any records.

man and woman walking on road during daytime Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

The records that had likely found themselves inside the much larger record sleeve for safe keeping, were actually voice-o-graphs. An old way of essentially leaving a voicemail. According to NPR, "in the 1940s, it was the only way to send a voice message. It allowed people to record their own voices onto a vinyl disk and send it to friends or relatives."

Palumbo's rare find was recorded in 1954 according to the dates on the envelopes. One was sent by Airman Douglas Hoybook Jr. who was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonia, Texas. The voice-o-graph was being sent to his wife back home in Isanti, Minnesota, and the second record has the recording of a message she sent him. It's unclear why the pair were apart but since Lackland is a training base and his rank appears to be low level, it would stand to reason that he was likely in basic training.

person playing record on Victrola turntable Photo by Victrola Record Players on Unsplash

"I could not find any contact information, I tried looking them up on Facebook. I just haven't been able to find anybody to contact, cause I don't know if their family is still in Minnesota, if they're out in California, so I'm hoping this news story will reach the right people," Palumbo tells WKRC Local 12.


The recordings are very clear, so a family member would certainly recognize their voices even more than 70 years after they were recorded. The thrifty shopper explains that she lost her grandparents at a young age and would give a lot to hear her grandparents' voices if someone had found old recordings of them.

"Closure. Kinda get closure for the family and me a little bit because this is such a valuable piece of history for them. It's family history. And this is 1954, this is pre-voicemail, pre-social media, this is how they would communicate," she says.

Palumbo surmises that the recordings were left behind by mistake, likely stuffed inside the record sleeve during a move and forgotten about. Hopefully the stories about the recordings make it to the family of the two lovebirds so they can enjoy hearing their loved ones' voices when they were young and in love.

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Culture

A guy definitively listed the 12 things that make men happy and it's 100% accurate

Guys literally only want one thing and it's a cool stick.

Nolan Reid / TikTok

There's an old joke slash meme that goes something like this: "Guys literally only want one thing and it's disgusting." Its used to imply, obviously, that men are shallow and crude creatures. TikTok creator and simple-life advocate Nolan Reid, however, has a different idea of what men really want.

Nolan recently made a video about "Little things in life that make men happy."

The hilarious list includes:

  • A fridge full of beer.
  • Drinking said beer in the garage. With your dog. And a good buddy.
  • Finding a cool stick.
  • Kicking a rock.
  • Staring at water.
  • Dropping rocks into said water.

As a fellow man, I would say: Yeah. That pretty much covers it.

It really doesn't take much! Watch Nolan's full video to see the rest, and just appreciate how much joy and satisfaction he gets from these simple thing.



@nolanreid7 A few of many #littlethings #muzzymade ♬ It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over - Lenny Kravitz


People loved Nolan's list – so much so that they began adding their own ideas of "simple things men love."

The video racked up hundreds of thousands of views across TikTok and Instagram.

One commenter wrote, "He just described my whole personality." Another added, "This guy gets it."

Others chimed in with their own additions to the list, like staring at a fire for hours. Or just peace and quiet.

But most of the nearly 200 comments were just people chiming in to say one thing:

"Hell yeah."

Finally, someone who understands us.

Nolan's ultra-relaxed vision of "masculinity" is honestly so refreshing.

Men on social media are usually bombarded with the Andrew Tates and Jordan Petersons of the world, influencers who constantly berate us to make more money, lose weight and add muscle, sleep with more women, take charge, relentlessly self-improve.

I like Nolan's much chiller idea of masculinity. It reminds me of being a kid, taking pleasure in the simple things, not racing to be anywhere, not trying to impress anyone or prove anything.

Nolan's entire account is a breath of fresh air, an antidote to hustle culture. His videos find joy in:

  • Breaking down cardboard boxes
  • Driving at sunset
  • Going fishing
  • Throwing a frisbee
  • Wearing t-shirts
A daily visit to his page is almost like a meditation. I highly recommend giving him a follow to add a little counterprogramming to your social media feed.

Nolan says in another recent video that he started making TikToks and Instagram reels just for fun, but discovered along the way that he was really passionate about the message.

"I never thought that my simple living and love for little things would resonate with so many of you."

He said he hopes to inspire people to "take a step back and enjoy the good simple things in life."

I suddenly have the urge to go chuck a rock into a river, so I would say: Mission Accomplished!

This article originally appeared last year.

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Health

How parents who are overly critical of others unknowingly crush their children's self-esteem

A mindfulness influencer has a great point about how kids internalize their parents' attitudes.

via BigSisCasey/Instagram (Used with permission)

Casey Smith explains her emotionally immature parents on Instagram.

Have you ever had a friend who loves to gossip and criticize other friends in your group? Did that make you think, “Gee, when I’m not around, I bet they say bad things about me, too?” Well, if that was your takeaway, you’re probably right. Unfortunately, children often make the same connection when they have overly-critical parents, and it can cause them myriad psychological problems.

One such child of highly critical parents, Casey Smith, who goes by the name @BigSisCasey on TikTok and Instagram, recently shared why it took years to connect between her parents’ negativity and her fear of rejection. Casey Smith is a wellness influencer on TikTok and host of the "It's Not Normal" podcast.

“My parents would constantly comment on and criticize others, whether it was the way that someone dressed, the shape of their nose, the way they sounded when they sang a song, or their hairline,” Smith recalls. “But it didn't stop there. I distinctly remember my parents throughout my childhood and my teenage years commenting on the part in my hair. They didn't like how skinny I was. Calling me flat as a board, mocking the way that I pronounce different words if they differed from the way my parent pronounce those words, and criticizing my taste in music and shows.”



Smith says that her parents' immature judgment of others made her feel like they were also silently judging her, too. “I think it causes us to internalize a lot of this criticism and to interpret our parents' attitude as a reflection of how they secretly or not so secretly maybe view us,” Smith revealed. She was also rewarded her for joining them in judging others.

“I remember when I was a kid sort of sharing in my parents' criticism and becoming critical of others myself because the more I was like my parents, the more my parents seem to like me,” she continued. Smith goes on to say that being around her hypercritical parents led to a fear of rejection and people-pleasing behaviors.

Upworthy spoke with Smith about her parents, and she ventured to guess why they were so emotionally immature. "If I had to venture a guess, it’s likely that my parents’ insecurities stem from their own unresolved trauma and their resulting need for control," Smith told Upworthy. "It’s common, I’ve learned, for adults who felt powerless throughout childhood to go to great lengths to achieve and maintain a position of power and authority in adulthood. As I got older, I became more independent, my independence, I think, was perceived as a threat to them. Their emotional limitations are a result of their unwillingness to develop the skills necessary for healthy communication, unconditional love, and mutual respect between a parent and their adult child. These limitations lead to fear—fear of rejection, fear of abandonment, and often lead to more toxic behavior."



Smith realized her parents' behavior was unhealthy at 21 after meeting her husband. "I felt as though I couldn’t do anything, completely suffocated, and it was then that I realized how unhealthy it all was, that I had been enduring emotional abuse for quite some time," she told Upworthy. "From that point on, I slowly started gaining perspective and began the process of unlearning all of the toxic traits I was taught throughout my childhood."

The post resonated with many of Smith's followers who were also raised by hypercritical parents. “I always thought everyone was judging me because my mom was always making negative comments about people,” one commenter noted. “My dad would comment on every little detail of a stranger. Like, things I legitimately didn't even notice until he pointed it out. So naturally, now I think everyone is judging my every flaw,” another added.

“It's like preemptive self-defense. If you think people are judging you for something, judging them even before they voice it feels like you have control, but you'll never feel good about yourself,” a commenter wrote.

critical parents, judgmental, beratingAn angry woman judging people.via Canva/Photos

Anyone who has hypercritical parents should seek professional help to overcome the psychological damage and develop a healthier sense of self. Barbara Greenberg, PhD., suggests that the journey begins with self-acceptance. “Begin to learn to appreciate yourself. Make a list of your strengths and positive qualities. Also, give yourself permission to make mistakes. This is part of the human experience. We all need to forgive ourselves for our mistakes and get back into the game of life. Disappointment is okay, but tearing yourself down is not,” she writes in Psychology Today.

It’s unfortunate that Smith had to deal with hypercritical parents and spent many years feeling inadequate because of it. But over half a million people have seen her video, so hopefully, it will inspire some people to realize the pain that immature parents can cause, and they can work to break the cycle.

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Family

When should parents stop tracking kids? 7 ways to balance safety with autonomy and privacy.

Location sharing apps have led to uncharted territory for parents.

Photo credit: Canva

Parents can always know where their kids are these days. When should that stop?

Every generation of parents has had to navigate questions previous parents never even had to think about, especially in the technological age. It began with television—How much TV time is too much?—then moved to video games, the internet, smartphones, and so on. And one of the newest conundrums parents have to figure out is when—or if—to stop tracking their children's location.

Thanks to GPS and location sharing apps, parents now have the ability to know where their child (or at least their child's phone) is at any given moment, and lots of parents are taking advantage of it. A recent study by iSharing found that 80% of parents tracked their children in 2024, up from 16% in 2016. Location tracking can provide some peace of mind for parents and kids alike, but at what point is it too much?

It may make sense to always know where your middle schooler or high schooler is, but there are big debates about whether college students need to have their location known at every moment. Some find location tracking into the young adult years to be an invasion of privacy. Others have had experiences where having location sharing enabled was a life-saving tool. Is there a right answer?

When it's framed as a tool for trust rather than control, location tracking can be good for parent-child relationships. Here are 7 tips the experts at iSharing compiled from their study of how to responsibly use location tracking while balancing safety and autonomy:

Tip 1: Understand How Common Tracking Is Among Parents

Tracking tools are now a widely adopted parenting aid, with 54% of parents frequently monitoring their children’s location. This significant increase reflects evolving safety concerns and growing accessibility to technology. Parents who understand why tracking has become so prevalent—such as managing multiple children or addressing safety in public spaces—can implement these tools more thoughtfully.

Where Are You Im Waiting GIFGiphy

Tip 2: Start with Clear Boundaries and Communication

When implementing location tracking, have an open discussion with your child. Experts recommend that parents clearly define when and why tracking will be used, such as during travel or emergencies. Transparency helps children understand that the goal is safety, not constant monitoring. For instance, families can agree to deactivate tracking during school hours or social outings, creating a sense of autonomy. When introducing location tracking, frame it as a tool for mutual safety. Be prepared to answer their questions, such as explaining why tracking is necessary for specific situations, not constant oversight, and reassuring them about privacy by setting boundaries like deactivating tracking during certain times.

Tip 3: Use Tracking to Teach Life Skills

Framing location tracking as a teaching tool can empower children. For example, parents can teach navigation skills by helping children choose the safest routes, discuss emergency readiness by identifying safe locations and practicing response plans, and introduce digital literacy concepts, such as understanding app permissions and managing online privacy. This approach helps children view tracking as a growth-oriented resource rather than a restriction.

Location Gps GIF by AboutMedia Internetmarketing GmbHGiphy

Tip 4: Choose Reliable Apps Thoughtfully

Parents often struggle with tracking without infringing on their child's privacy. It's essential to set limits on the data collected and explain its use. When selecting a tracking app, look for features like secure encryption, geofencing, and clear data-sharing policies. Apps offering additional tools, such as personalized location reports or alerts for unsafe driving behaviors, can help parents ensure their child’s safety beyond just location tracking. Features like these help teens understand their weaknesses, such as harsh braking or speeding, and take steps to improve safely.

Tip 5: Educate Children About Location Sharing Risks

Teach children the risks of oversharing their location, whether on social media or through unverified apps. Use age-appropriate examples to explain how location data can be misused, such as by strangers or cybercriminals. Encourage them to share their location only with trusted individuals. This awareness is especially critical as 30% of adult social media users have at least one account set to share their location in posts automatically.

Tip 6: Gamify Location Tracking for Engagement

Gamification can transform location tracking into an engaging experience for children and teens. For example, parents can create family missions where children navigate to specific safe locations, award digital badges for safe practices such as consistent check-ins or adhering to agreed boundaries, or use friendly competitions to encourage responsible behavior, such as discovering the safest routes or maintaining safe driving habits. By integrating playful elements, tracking can promote safety while keeping it enjoyable for children.

Warning T-Rex GIF by Meta DigitalGiphy

Tip 7: Adapt Tracking Practices to the Child's Age

Tracking practices should evolve as children grow older to balance safety with their need for independence. Research shows that 50% of teens report their parents monitoring their location, while nearly half of college students have experienced or currently experience digital tracking by a parent or caregiver. However, college students who are tracked often perceive their parents as overly controlling, which can strain the parent-child relationship and hinder the development of independence. Adjusting tracking practices over time helps foster trust and supports a child’s growing independence.

“Technology should serve as a bridge, not a barrier, to trust and connection within families," says a representative of iSharing. "When parents approach tools like location tracking with transparency and mutual respect, they not only enhance safety but also model the importance of balance between independence and accountability. The goal is to integrate these tools in ways that align with values of trust, respect, and open communication, ensuring they complement rather than complicate family dynamics.”

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