...three sentences about Paul Revere. Took Junie to Somerville Patriots Day, which turns out to involve a reenactment of Paul Revere's ride ("look, baby, a horsey!"). Then discovered that the 101 bus follows path of Revere's ride, as we caught up to and inched along behind said horsey and his police escort, whee.
I was in fact kind of moved by the whole thing though - the high school band tootling Yankee Doodle, the mayor speechifying, the families who had turned out for it. I read Junie the poem after, and totally got chills somewhere around "And yet, through the gloom and the light,/The fate of a nation was riding that night;/And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,/Kindled the land into flame with its heat." That is some quality national myth there.
Also, Overheard in Somerville: walking to the thing, I passed five boys going the other way, Latino teenagers maybe 14-15, one of whom was saying, "no, not the blue Avatar, the real Avatar", which got the somewhat impatient response from another to "just say 'the Last Airbender'." Made me smile.
I was in fact kind of moved by the whole thing though - the high school band tootling Yankee Doodle, the mayor speechifying, the families who had turned out for it. I read Junie the poem after, and totally got chills somewhere around "And yet, through the gloom and the light,/The fate of a nation was riding that night;/And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,/Kindled the land into flame with its heat." That is some quality national myth there.
Also, Overheard in Somerville: walking to the thing, I passed five boys going the other way, Latino teenagers maybe 14-15, one of whom was saying, "no, not the blue Avatar, the real Avatar", which got the somewhat impatient response from another to "just say 'the Last Airbender'." Made me smile.