Occupation: Gentleman

So occasionally I think of something I want to write a blog entry about, but because I'm not at a point in my day where I can actually write it, I send myself an email or write myself a note about it. Ideally, I then remember to take care of it later. Usually, though, I forget to follow up on the notes and the idea gets lost for all eternity.

In this case, this is all half-true: I wrote the email and even remembered to check it, but it's been so long that I can barely remember what this cryptic note meant: "canfield, who said his occupation was gentleman, and who went to jail and called it his harvard. Whistler painted his portrait and called him his reverence."

Ignoring the horrible grammar for right now (I was on my cell phone, do you know how hard capitalization is on those things?), I think what this email is telling me to do is to research and write about Richard Albert Canfield, a contemporary of the American painter James McNeill Whistler and an honest-to-goodness eccentric. Apparently he listed his occupation as gentleman and was arrested for running a number of illegal casinos and gambling rings. And, as you can see above, he also called jail his "Harvard." He was a colorful and creative man who collected art by the droves and was eventually felled in a fatal fall in a New York City subway.

I'm not sure where I was when I learned this or why I thought it was important that you know it as well, but clearly I did. So there you go: a short and vague history lesson from Shoshi-of-the-past. I hope you enjoyed it.