Emperor Norton -

[Toasty]

This historical person has come up a bit in one of the lolcow threads. So I figure what with him not being either the subject of the thread or a lolcow, along with peoples interest in him, here would be a better place to discuss him. There is a pretty good wikipedia article on him, and lots of info out there.

 

[The Knife's Husbando]

He's one of the patron saints of Discordianism (Fnord!). Neil Gaimen also did a lovely sad story about him in his Sandman series.

 

[Toasty]

I know, double post, phone grief. Anyway, a summary of Norton: in the mid 1800's Joshua Norton was a relatively wealthy merchant. He was from south africa, and a non religious jew. He lived, and owned property in San Francisco. Due to some bad investments and a disastrous rice shortage he wound up penniless. He disappeared, then returned a few years later, and drafted a proclaimation creating himself Emperor of America, which he sent to S.F. newspapers. Over the coming years, he drafted many proclamations, some completely crazy, some not. He ordered that calling the city "Frisco" be considered s crime, and that the golden gate bridge be built. The comic by Neil Gaiman, included in the "Dream Country" collection of Sandman, Three Septembers and a January, chronicles his life and death pretty well.

 

[Toasty]

I read somewhere that the discordians celebrate his funeral backwards every year. Or was that absurdists? Either way i love it.

 

[applecat]

Christopher Moore has a homeless man character called The Emporer who's based off of Emporer Norton in a bunch of his San Francisco-based books (A Dirty Job, Bloodsucking Fiends, etc). It was a pretty cool bonus to find out that there actually was a delusional "emperor" of San Fransisco.

 

[The Dude]

He had his own currency that the shops in his area accepted as real money.

 

[exball]

Emperor Norton was the greatest emperor in the world.