A Man Rich in Friends

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

He was going to corner the rice market. There was a shortage of rice in San Francisco and he, well, he knew people.

Unfortunately, the day “his” ship arrived in port with a delivery of rice, every other ship that arrived that day also had a full load of rice. The shortage was suddenly over, but Joshua Norton was the only man waiting for his ship to come in who had invested his entire fortune—possibly as much as a quarter-million dollars—on that one shipment. He declared bankruptcy.

He began to file legal proceedings and lawsuits against every institution that he could think was to be blamed for his misfortune, from banks to the United States of America itself. Finally, he declared himself Emperor of the entire continent, America and Mexico. He had probably gone insane in his frustration and endless effort, but no man found greater riches.
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Today in History: August 12

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

“Being desirous of allaying the dissensions of party strife now existing within our realm, I do hereby dissolve and abolish the Democratic and Republican parties, and also do hereby decree the disfranchisement and imprisonment, for not more than 10, nor less than five, years, to all persons leading to any violation of this our imperial decree.”—Emperor Norton I, an Imperial Decree, dated August 12, 1869, and published in the San Francisco Herald the next day

Emperor Norton I (above) outlawed the Democratic Party and Republican National Committee on this date in 1869. Emperor?

Joshua Norton was a San Franciscan who lost his fortune in a wild investment speculation in the 1850s and then began suing any party he could think of—including America—to void the contract that had ruined him. Frustrated, and possibly driven insane by the effort, he proclaimed himself Emperor, or, officially, “Norton 1, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.”
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Some Memories of Clawman Treefeller

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

I wish you could have known Matt Coleman. Many did, but not enough. There was not enough time. “Matt’s heart was so big, it surrounded him,” one of his colleagues wrote in a memorial tribute.

I am grateful that I happen to think this about so many people that I have met, those sentences like “You ought to know so-and-so,” or “You should have met my friend, X,” but I am frustrated that I have not said it out loud often enough to the people about whom I thought this. Matt already knew most of my friends, anyway, and the one friend I introduced Matt to, well, Matt asked her out. Or she asked him.

A person’s end should not be what the world knows of them, though, and eleven years ago today, August 11, 2011, my friend Matt Coleman was murdered. No one’s death should fight for attention with the person’s life, so I will briefly give the end, and then we will celebrate a gorgeous life.

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