Comments on: 3 Colorful California Politicians

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:13:00 +0000

I’ve listened to Biafra’s account of his candidacy on his spoken word albums (yes I have almost all of them). He says he actually forced a runoff between the two front runners. The city (or state; I can’t recall right now) passed a law saying you could no longer run for office under anything but your “christian name”, supposedly to stave off these sorts.

By: Kate

Kate — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:02:11 +0000

One of my favorite authors, Christopher Moore, based one of his characters on Emperor Norton. He’s known as The Emperor, who walks around San Francisco with his two dogs (I forget his name) and is known and loved by pretty much everyone he runs into. The Emperor appears in almost all of Moore’s books (except for Lamb, which is the only one I’ve read so far that doesn’t take place in San Francisco).

By: Rich

Rich — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:06:00 +0000

I remember a contestant answering “Emperor Norton” once on Jeopardy, and you could tell by Alex’s condescending reply that he had never heard of him, which I thought was odd.

By: Chris Higgins

Chris Higgins — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:36:59 +0000

Awesome entry, Carl!

By: Pablo

Pablo — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:08:43 +0000

To set it straight, Biafra proposed erecting statues of Dan White around town AND having the city sell eggs and rocks to citizens to throw at them to relieve tension from the two assassinations White did that started the White Night Riots. I printed a flier from his campaign about 5 years which has his “policies.” Biafra, of course, is an extremely liberal thinker and had a photo of that riot on the Dead Kennedys’ first album.

By: jon

jon — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:32:29 +0000

frisco? lol. jcor2213@ameritech.net

By: flotsam

flotsam — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:05:21 +0000

“many thought he was a homeless nutcase” – or do you mean ‘harmless’ nutcase

By: Ransom Riggs

Ransom Riggs — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:08:44 +0000

Always good to see you on the blog, Carl!

By: craig

craig — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:42:17 +0000

I grew up in San Francisco and my dad used to dress up like Emperor Norton for Halloween. Most people thought he was supposed to be a strange pirate.