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04/18/2005 Entry: "Listen my children"

As we slowly creep to the midnight hour, gentle readers, I might mention that on this night in 1775, Paul Revere and some others made their midnight ride. Wiki.

Learning of a late night sortie of soldiers sent to march into Lexington to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock and then march on to confiscate a weapons stash in Concord, Revere waited on the shore across from a church steeple in Boston to await the signal: one lantern if by land, two if by sea. He and William Dawes and later joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott road out to Lexington to warn the minutemen of the coming troops. Revere was captured in Lexington, but the other two escaped. Ultimately, only Prescott made it to Concord.

(Note that the "one if by land, two if by sea" bit is probably the most memorable phrases in the whole legend. Now watch this cheesy flash children's propaganda and take a good look at the map. Look at the red line and you tell me whether this one detail really matters for jack. But I digress...)

British troops were met by militias and guerrilas and driven back to Boston.

The event would be long forgotten, were it not for a poem by Longfellow, one of the first truly great American poets. But he left out Dawes and Prescott, probably because nothing rhymes with Prescott. And the poem was longwinded enough already. He also failed to mention that Revere was court-martialed during the Revolutionary War.

Aside from being the most rhymable name in a work of semi-historical fiction, Revere did leave a substantial mark on history and the rest. He was, of course, a member of a cell known as the Sons of Liberty. You gotta admit: cool name. He was a prolific engraver as well as a silver- and goldsmith. He was there at the Tea Party, and he authored many famous politcal charachatures of the time-- both a creative and feisty insurgent indeed.

He is also said to be one of the founders of the American Industrial movement--maybe a row behind Eli Whitney of course, but still close to the orchestra pit. I'm not saying that industrialism is a panacea, of course. Still, without it you would not be reading this crap right now. Over and out.