Daily Archives: April 19, 2017
Cruising The Strip . . .
Again, thanks for the kind comments about my Paul Revere screed. I’ve always enjoyed history, especially the misconceptions and mythical parts.
In fact one semester in college I took 3 history courses all at the same time as electives.
One reader asked if there were all these other riders, how come Paul Revere got all the press? I guess you might say he had a better press agent. Or at least had Henry Wadsworth Longfellow write a poem about him.
So why did Longfellow write about Paul Revere when there were other riders, and Revere didn’t even make it to Concord? Well, one reason stated was that Paul Revere was the best known of the bunch. A well-known and prosperous Boston silversmith, he was well-connected with the Revolutionary leadership, and a prominent member of the Sons of Liberty.
But there are some whispers that Longfellow found the name Revere easier to rhyme than Dawes, Prescott, or Bissell. Or especially Ludington.
And not surprisingly Longfellow took a lot of liberties (artistic license?) with the storyline in the poem.
For example, Revere did not observe the two lanterns in the old North Church tower, saying the British troops were coming by sea. In fact he was the one who ordered the lanterns placed in the tower in the tower in the first place.
Longfellow’s poem was not written until 1860, but ever then some people were upset that Paul Revere got all the acclaim. Helen F. Moore even penned a parody poem on the subject.
‘Tis all very well for the children to hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere;
But why should my name be quite forgot,
Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?
Why should I ask? The reason is clear—
My name was Dawes and his Revere
But note that she didn’t try to rhyme anything with Dawes either.
I did get my exhaust pipe strap hanger installed this afternoon and it works fine.
So that’s fixed now.
About 4pm Jan and I headed back down to the Henderson area to once again have dinner at Golden Flower Chinese Restaurant, a place that our friend Nick Russell turned us onto. And this time we had a dinner companion.
Boots Gibson, a long-time blog reader lives in Las Vegas and wanted to get together. So Golden Flower was the perfect place.
Turns out that Boots and Jan have a lot in common, both having worked in the medical field for many years, so they hit it off pretty quick.
We had our usual great meal and spent over two hours there. I think our waitress was wondering if we were going to start all over and order again.
Later, about 7:30 Jan and I headed over to the Vegas Strip to do our drive from the top to the bottom. We both enjoy watching some of the amazing outfits people actually wear out in public as they parade along the street.
Getting down to the bottom of the Strip at the airport, we head back over to Flamingo Rd. to have a piece of pie at Blueberry Hill Restaurant, known for their homemade pies. And it certainly shows.
And tastes.
Thought for the Day:
“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-front for the urge to rule it.” – H. L. Mencken
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