
Joshua Norton, Emperor of the United States - harris11
http://priceonomics.com/joshua-norton-emperor-of-the-united-states/
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aeturnum
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?

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jgmmo
Being a Norton, I long ago heard about this guy.

Though 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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton)

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shadowcats
Related to Edward Norton the actor?

~~~
jgmmo
Nope, but I did tell people I was when I was a kid.

Also other fibs: dads owns 'Norton Antivirus', and related to WCW wrestler
Scott Norton.

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dchichkov
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.

~~~
hkmurakami
I hear that "The Power Broker", a biography of Moses and winner of the
Pulitzer in 1974, is a fantastic read :)

[http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Broker-Robert-
Moses/dp/03947...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Broker-Robert-
Moses/dp/0394720245)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker)

~~~
thaumasiotes
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.

~~~
icebraining
It's a book from 1975, so there's no digital version, and it's probably not
worth the time to make an ebook for the sales it gets.

~~~
mattzito
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.

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Eric_WVGG
There's an excellent story about Norton in Neal Gaiman's Sandman: Fables and
Reflections

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mercurial
Absolutely. When I first read it, I thought it was awesome that Gaiman had so
much imagination. I only learned later that Norton actually existed.

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gooserock
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:

[http://bornyesterdaypodcast.com#episode8](http://bornyesterdaypodcast.com#episode8)

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kylebrown
> _" 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 suppose he meant abominable?

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dobroezlo
Shows you how much americans wish they had any kind of royalty in their life.
But no-no... you've made your choice!

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nextstep
>> ...the price of rice skyrocketed from 4 to 36 cents per pound (a 900%
increase).

That's an 800% increase.

~~~
zackcrockett
Thanks for catching that; fixed!

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nickkline
Anyone else read Christopher Moore? Emperor Norton's a regular in a bunch of
his books, hilarious stuff.

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spiritplumber
I wonder if San Francisco would still work for things like this.

~~~
tizzdogg
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](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Chu)

~~~
guelo
Though a lot of SF culture is disappearing in the current wave of
gentrification.

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adventured
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)

~~~
guelo
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.

~~~
nervousvarun
“America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans.
Everywhere else is Cleveland.” -Tennessee Williams

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disdev
Other cities have similar characters, I'm sure.

Memphis has Prince Mongo
[[http://www.1045theriver.com/pages/7337724.php?](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.

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gadders
He reminds me a bit of this guy in New Zealand:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_New_Zealand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_New_Zealand)

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jacquesm
After reading that my conclusion is that every city I've ever been in
desperately needs an Emperor as benevolent as Norton.

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mikegogulski
There is a new Emperor Norton in town:
[http://norton13.us/](http://norton13.us/)

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Duhveed
I love that he went a little crazy in public and the city residents just went
with it.

