If you want to learn more about Joshua Norton, I make a history podcast, and I talked about him (and Jose Sarria, another San Francisco celebrity) in episode 8:
Only in San Francisco ;) Now, talking about some real power, if there was a real emperor in the U.S., it was a New York's public servant - Robert Moses.
Yes, it is. I read it in a public policy seminar my freshman year in school and it's had a huge effect on how I understand politics and power. In some ways, I like it better than the magisterial "Years of Lyndon Johnson".
Well, great. A 1300-page book available for under $15 plus international shipping... or as an audiobook, 66 hours long ( but free shipping!) for... $70?
Something has gone deeply wrong in the market here. If only there were some way to convey three and a half pounds of information across the ocean in less than a month and for a reasonable price. :(
Ironically, it seems to be easy to buy an ebook of cliffs notes to this one.
I actually emailed the publisher about this, as the power broker is one of my favorite books (but totally impractical to carry around).
I got a response saying that they would love to do an ebook version of TPB, but Robert Caro won't allow them to do that - he even refuses to submit his writing digitally, instead writing everything by hand, then typing it up with a typewriter, which is then retyped by a typist at the publisher into Word.
I've read plenty of older books in ebook form; they're riddled with obvious OCR errors but perfectly intelligible. Making an ebook from a paper book, as far as I know, involves no more than putting it into a special-purpose shredder that separates and scans the pages, and since those already exist, the cost of doing so is extremely low.
Probably the closest modern-day equivalent San Francisco has is Frank Chu, well-known protestor of 12 Galaxies fame. San Francisco still cherishes it's eccentrics.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Chu
I only know a little about the gentrification going on in SF, mostly from stories I've run across here on HN. Is it bad that a new culture is taking hold in SF, and why? (given that at some point in the past, a new culture had to take over in SF for the now disappearing culture to exist in the first place)
Most of the united states has the same bland culture. San Francisco's was special, comparable to New Orleans in uniqueness I think. Though a lot of the rest of the country sees SF as being too liberal and would gladly see it fall in line with the bland sameness of everywhere else. Especially the flood of libertarian minded young white males.
It's pretty disparaging to dismiss the entire country except for San Francisco and New Orleans by saying "yeah those places are all the same and bland". There are many, many places in the US with their own unique cultures and quirks; the fact that you're unaware of them doesn't mean that they aren't there.
I've always been fond of Emperor Norton. He's a figure that fits right into the modern SF tapestry.
He fits in so well that I wonder what historical figures have fallen by the wayside of San Francisco history. The Emperor seems culturally prophetic now, but there must have been other notable figures
Are there Bay Area public figures who were notable in their day, but whose character has not aged as well?
> "Whoever after due and proper warning shall be heard to utter the abdominal word 'Frisco,' which has no linguistic or other warrant, shall be deemed guilty of a High Misdemeanor."
I grew up in Memphis. Prince Mongo had a nightclub that was the place to go for high school kids. They apparently never checked for ID's... it was known for serving to high schoolers.
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[ 6.8 ms ] story [ 146 ms ] threadThough I have no idea why it's on priceonomics. This article contains less info than the wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton
Also other fibs: dads owns 'Norton Antivirus', and related to WCW wrestler Scott Norton.
http://bornyesterdaypodcast.com#episode8
http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Broker-Robert-Moses/dp/03947...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker
Highly, highly recommended.
Something has gone deeply wrong in the market here. If only there were some way to convey three and a half pounds of information across the ocean in less than a month and for a reasonable price. :(
Ironically, it seems to be easy to buy an ebook of cliffs notes to this one.
I got a response saying that they would love to do an ebook version of TPB, but Robert Caro won't allow them to do that - he even refuses to submit his writing digitally, instead writing everything by hand, then typing it up with a typewriter, which is then retyped by a typist at the publisher into Word.
IP issues are something else again.
He fits in so well that I wonder what historical figures have fallen by the wayside of San Francisco history. The Emperor seems culturally prophetic now, but there must have been other notable figures
Are there Bay Area public figures who were notable in their day, but whose character has not aged as well?
I suppose he meant abominable?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_New_Zealand
That's an 800% increase.
Memphis has Prince Mongo [http://www.1045theriver.com/pages/7337724.php?]
I grew up in Memphis. Prince Mongo had a nightclub that was the place to go for high school kids. They apparently never checked for ID's... it was known for serving to high schoolers.