'That time don't count' - An Abe Lincoln Story

A 69-year-old Dutch man waged a desperate court battle to drop 20 years off his life — in order to boost his chances on a dating site.

Emile Ratelband (shown below), an entrepreneur and self-help guru, was born in March 1949 — but wanted to legally change his birth certificate to show that he was born in 1969, the NY Post reported November 8, 2018.

"I have done a [doctor’s] check-up and what does it show?” Ratelband said in an interview with the Post. “My biological age is 45 years.”

This reminds me of a story that President Abraham Lincoln told Thurlow Weed, a NY newspaper publisher, about his Circuit-riding days in Illinois.

During a trial, one of the witnesses was asked his age. He replied, “Sixty.” 

Convinced he was much older, the attorney repeated the question but received the same answer. 

Exasperated, the attorney finally told the man, “The court knows you to be much older than sixty.”

“Oh, I understand now,” was the man’s rejoinder. “You’re thinking of those ten years I spent on the eastern shore of Maryland. That was so much time lost and it don’t count.”

I guess Mr. Ratelbrand was trying to make up for lost time too.

(P.S. The court turned Ratelbrand down.)

This was another tale from Abe Lincoln, Storyteller.

Mac