emonome

While doing a random search here, I stumbled upon a book by Keats. Reading the book wasn’t as much fun. Where it took me was.

I’m probably the only one who seeks bizarre connections in things. While browsing the ‘About this’ page I’d noticed that this particular book I’ve linked to was digitized on February 27, 2006, which happens to be Ralph Nader’s birthday. Hold on…Ralph Nader’s birthday!! Where did that come from? Because of my previous post. Now I swear a post about the Keats book is 100% random. I only knew I wanted to link to a book online, that’s all. February 27th would have meant nothing to me if I hadn’t seen that date. Naturally, I had to find out why that date appeared so close to one another.

Wanna see me make it more weird? Okay, here goes. It’s the same date Pokemon was created by Satoshi Tajiri. Poke Emon was a silly little thing I was called once. The day is also Dominican Republic’s Independence Day. I live on Fort Washington -Washington Heights (as it turns out, so did Comics legend, Stan Lee and Washington legend, Henry Kissinger) which has been a predominantly DR neighborhood. Washington Height’s connection to this man is obvious, and since this man’s namesake is this country’s capital - there has to be a connection there with the date, right? Guess what, in Feb 27 of 1801 Washington DC was put under the jurisdiction of US Congress.

I’m not done. Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Cooper Union speech on Feb. 27, 1860. In 2003, my CUNY Baccalaureate program ceremony was held at Cooper Union. Eliot Spitzer was the main speaker. I had also attended the graduation ceremony at Brooklyn College, since I’d done all of my Bachelor’s programs there I was able to attend two ceremonies. Author Irwin Shaw went to Brooklyn College and was born on February 27, 1913.

Let’s see if I can tie this craziness up with Mr. Longfellow, baseball, and another President of U.S.A. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807, married Frances Appleton, whose father bought the couple a house where George Washington once lived! By the way, Longfellow wrote a poem titled….wait for it….wait for it…Keats! Keats’s mother’s first name, Frances. Malcolm X’s funeral was on February 27, 1965. He was assassinated 6 days earlier at the Audubon Ballroom (built by William Fox, founder of 20th Century Fox, the same year Irwin Shaw was born; 45 years later FOX released ‘The Young Lions’ based on the Irwin Shaw novel), in Washington Heights, not far from George Washington’s base during the American Revolutionary War - which also happens to be the oldest house in Manhattan besides being a National Historic Landmark.

Right across from the Audubon Ballroom used to be the Hilltop Park, the home of the New York Highlanders (now known to the world as the New York Yankees). Several decades later, Alex Rodriguez would be born in Washington Heights (who knows, perhaps just a few blocks away); “Born a Yankee” perhaps applies to him best. HilltopPark is no longer there. Instead, it’s now Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, where another future Prez had his heart surgery and where Malcolm X was pronounced dead. George Washington himself may have walked the site where the Yankees played and may have stood right on the spot where Clinton was operated on. It is a possibility. San Francisco Giants (once New York Giants) team called the area home too.

If I remember correctly, this whole post started with a San Francisco based search company’s Book Search, Ralph Nader, and February 27th. How did it get this far? If you’ve ever wondered how I get to learn things, this would be one way. And all this because someone digitized Keats on a particular date. Crayzeee!!