Library, Sunday

[stupid-toasters.livejournal.com]

Lee, having woken up restless, decided to rectify that upon getting to the library. One would think that meant shelving books but, after actually getting to the library and finding that, somehow, it had grown palm trees overnight, he took on a little bit of a different route.

He grabbed the cart, got up a good head of steam and then jumped on the back of the cart, steering to go around each palm tree. The music being inexplicably pumped into the library just gave him something to listen to while he steered through palm trees.

It was totally fun.

Mad Kings & Queens, Week IX [Monday, Period 4]

[atreideslioness]

"Joshua Abraham Norton, the self-proclaimed His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, was a celebrated citizen of San Francisco, California, who in 1859 proclaimed himself 'Emperor of these United States' and 'Protector of Mexico,'" Ghanima said, launching right into the lecture as the last student was seated. "Born in London, Norton spent most of his early life in South Africa; he emigrated to San Francisco in 1849 after receiving a bequest of $40,000 from his father's estate. Norton initially made a living as a businessman, but he lost his fortune in a bad investment. Afterward, he disappeared for a few years, vanishing from any sort of public record."

( If sincere, his was a career of long heroic sacrifice; if an imposter, he must be ranked as one of the most extraordinary of that class who has yet lived. He left no successor. The emoluments of an unattractive throne and an empty royalty were not alluring; there was none strong enough to follow him; and finally the world was entering upon an epoch of materialism in which there is no provision for such a monarch. From that strange stage through the doors of oblivion, thus passes forever Norton I, Emperor of the United States, and Protector of Mexico. L'Empereur est mort. )

"In 1934, Norton's remains were transferred, as were all graves in the city, at the expense of the City of San Francisco to a grave site of moderate splendor at Woodlawn Cemetery, in Colma. The site is marked by a large stone inscribed "Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico."

[TL;DR Class is TL;DR, but wait for the OCD is up!]