Comments on: Comments on 17732

Post number 17732

charlesv — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 07:42:42 -0800

Le Roi Est Mort, declared the newspapers upon his death. A king without a country, Joshua A. Norton declared himself Emperor Norton I of these United States in 1859. Was he a charlatan? A genius? Royalty? Or maybe all three? We may never know. Visit his archives to find out more.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 07:48:05 -0800

Ooooh, if the spot is vacant, I think I shall be the Empress of These United States...and the Protector of Mexico. You may all send tribute at will. [royal wave] Touch the pearls, smile at the peasants... [/royal wave] But seriously folks...Emperor Norton I was a hoot...it's good historical reading. :)

By: grabbingsand

grabbingsand — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 08:03:13 -0800

neil wrote a fictional account of his amazing life here.

By: NortonDC

NortonDC — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 08:19:43 -0800

Bah.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 08:46:41 -0800

Ah, but NortonDC...are you not the Emperor Norton the 600? Hmmm....wanna split the states with me? I'll take everything south of the Mason Dixon, you take everything north? ;)

By: ed

ed — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 09:27:30 -0800

Frank Chu is the closest thing we have to an Emperor Norton today.

By: majick

majick — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 10:01:37 -0800

Ah, Frank Chu. You know, if Frank ever prints his own currency, I'll accept it on principle.

By: wendell

wendell — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 10:03:25 -0800

Sorry guys, you can only partition the United States if you have the Emperor Norton Utilities.

By: jennak

jennak — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 10:25:41 -0800

Thanks, charlesv (charles the fifth? ha.), for the terrific links!

By: NortonDC

NortonDC — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 10:49:39 -0800

The biggest pretend ruler these days would have to be DC delegate ~~Emperor~~Eleanor Holmes Norton, who doesn't even get a vote in Congress. Poor thing. The true heir to Emperor Norton does not grovel and beg in front of committees. That is all. Dismissed.

By: charlesv

charlesv — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 11:50:33 -0800

My pleasure, jennak - and look for a post on Charles the fifth (the Holy Roman Emperor) sometime next week. If the US ever did break into separate countries, I wonder how it would break down....the East Coast, the South, Texas, and everything West of the Mississippi?

By: kindall

kindall — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 12:57:00 -0800

If the US ever did break into separate countries, I wonder how it would break down The theoretical Republic of Cascadia would require us to go to war with Canada to liberate British Columbia, but it is clearly an idea whose time has come.

By: majick

majick — Tue, 11 Jun 2002 14:44:25 -0800

"...and everything West of the Mississippi?" Pshaw. Good luck getting Superior California and Inferior California to agree to form one country! I suspect the breakdown would be much more along the lines of Northwestland, California, Long Beach And Outlying Areas, and 'All That Flat Stuff East of the Rockies.' Hmm. That sort of corresponds to my mental map of the US as it stands now! In any case, I'm not sure where Mississippi enters into the matter. Isn't that part of that big empty wasteland out in the flat part of the country?