Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Sunday, November 25. 2012

Get ready for Bridgeport (CT) Week at Maggie's Farm

Why? Why not?


For a taste, here's Iranistan (pronouced Iranis'tan), PT Barnum's home in 1848 on the corner of Fairfield Avenue and Iranistan Ave. Barnum did a lot of things in his life, made and lost fortunes, was Mayor of Bridgeport for a while, got elected to the CT State Senate to lobby for the railroads (he liked to commute to NYC in the pre-commuter era), promoted and was a major contributor to the creation of Bridgeport's Olmstead-designed Seaside Park, was a great impresario of hoaxes and the strange, and later in life a circus impresario. Everything on a grand scale, always taking risks, a bit of a con man who didn't mind admitting it. An American icon.


His three magnificent Bridgeport homes all burned down but his circus lives on as he first envisioned it: traveling by train and performing in permanent venues instead of under tents. And always, elephants. He transformed the circus industry.


 


Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 16:48 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

His is a grand story, as BD reports. Bridgeport was the birthplace of Horace Silver, jazz pianist, and Jim Payne, extraordinary funk-drumming student of Bernard Purdie, and now a leader in his art in NYC. At one time, Bridgeport was the cultural capital of Connecticut, with many Broadway actors and world-renowned musicians choosing to reside there. The clubs and theaters drew crowds from the whole state. It still has more to offer in the theatric and culinary arts than the rest of the state, with the exception of New Haven.

The city serviced the extensive metal-working trades in CT, is still the largest city in the state, and but not for the financial influence of the insurance lobby, whould have been the capital of the state.

Another famous Bridgeport resident was Gustave Whitehead, who apparently pre-dated the Wright brothers manned flights by two years. He was secretive and hence not given the publicity that his rivals garnered. Ohio and North Carolina can make the claim that they are First in Flight, but we Yankees know better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Whitehead

The nickname Bilgeport is not appreciated, BTW.
#1 steve in CT on 2012-11-25 19:39 (Reply)
As a former resident of Southport, I have learned to say of Bridgeport, "Fergeddaboutit."
#2 vanderleun on 2012-11-25 22:49 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.