From the NYT's report on Gary Faulkner, the American arrested in Pakistan on a solo mission to kill Osama bin Laden, comes the Rhetorical Question of the Day, supplied by the man's brother-in-law, John Martin:
"How many people thought Paul Revere was a nut?’”
Some of us would have been dumbfounded, but the reporter nimbly followed Martin's train of thought: "Asked if his brother-in-law was a hero or a nut, Mr. Martin replied, 'I think if he would have accomplished his task, he would have been a hero.'" Got it.
Paul Revere didn't actually accomplish his task either. He was arrested at Lincoln, about five and a half miles beyond Lexington, and dragged back. It was Dr. Samuel Prescott who completed the "Midnight Ride" to Concord, another four miles — but Revere wound up the hero anyway, thanks to Longfellow's stirring but highly inaccurate poem. Life is so not fair.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, if Revere and his colleague Dawes hadn't made it as far as Lexington, Prescott, who had visited with his lady friend Lydia Mulliken until 1 A.M., wouldn't have had the word to carry to Concord.