The Green-Wood Historic Fund The family plot of Abraham Lincoln’s favorite telegraph operator will get some much-needed attention today at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.As you read this on a screen, let’s pause for a second to recall an earlier technology that was equally influential: the telegraph.
Charles Tinker was Lincoln’s favorite telegraph operator.
“I have always had a curiosity to see the telegraph work,†Lincoln, then a lawyer, told Tinker in 1857. “I wonder if you would explain it to me.â€
During the Civil War, Lincoln visited Tinker daily to get the latest dispatches from the battlefields.
Tinker has been all but forgotten, but at 11 a.m. on Thursday, a small army of volunteers will gather around his monument at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
The volunteers â€" visiting preservationists from France and high school students from Brooklyn â€" will dig out and reset the gravestones of Tinker’s children, including his son Arthur Lincoln Tinker.
Here’s what else you need to know for Thursday.
WEATHER
Rain likely, and maybe a thunderstorm, with a high around 83. Clammy when it’s not raining. Same deal tomorrow, too. Keep the umbrella handy.
TRANSIT & TRAFFIC
- Mass Transit: No major delays. Click for latest M.T.A. status.
- Roads: O.K. so far. Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.
Alternate-side parking is suspended today and Friday for Id al-Fitr. Meters remain in effect.
COMING UP TODAY
- In the mayoral race, Anthony Weiner speaks about his crime plan at the Fortune Society, which helps former inmates. William C. Thompson Jr. attends a rally in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
- Bill de Blasio and Joseph J. Lhota take part in events marking the end of Ramadan. John Catsimatidis receives a union endorsement.
- Eliot Spitzer, the comptroller candidate, has a breakfast with clergy in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
- A day after results from new tests showed sharp declines, the schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, attends a teacher training season on new standards with the state education commissioner.
- Missing CBS on your TV? The City Council is holding hearings into the fight between CBS and Time Warner over cable fees.
- What the East Village needs: a squeaky dog pit. The celebrity designer Nate Berkus is turning Tompkins Square Park into a play space for dogs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. [Free]
- More than 2,000 children will compete in the City Parks Foundation’s track and field championships on Randall’s Island.
- A lunchtime concert by the psychedelic-soul pioneer Shuggie Otis at MetroTech in Downtown Brooklyn. [Free]
- Jacobus Van Cortlandt won’t mind: learn to salsa dance to live music on the lawn of the Van Cortlandt House Museum in the Bronx. 6:30 p.m. [Free]
- Fans of Bon Jovi and Journey, rejoice. “Bon Journey†will pay tribute to the musicians on the lawn at Astoria Park in Queens at 7:30 p.m. [Free]
- Outdoor movies, weather permitting: “Roman Holiday†at Brooklyn Bridge Park at dusk. “Oz: The Great and Powerful†at Prospect Park’s Long Meadow at 8 p.m. [Free]
Nicole Higgins DeSmet and E.C. Gogolak contributed reporting.
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