Perusing the news this morning, I am very grateful that the statute of limitations has likely run out on any possible investigations concerning what assistance may have been provided to me on my admission to Harvard in 1971!
I had just two stops today and they were far apart and both quite enjoyable. First, I visited the house of my fellow Harvard alumnus from the class of 1880, Theodore Roosevelt (his father was a rich businessman … hmmm). For the second straight day (also at the Vanderbilt House), I had a private tour, though I asked enough questions for the other seven that could have been there. We could use a Republican like Teddy today. He had the Square Deal, his cousin had the New Deal and he would be all over the New Green Deal today like one of the many bearskin rugs draping the floors of his home.
I went over the Verrazano Narrows bridge for the second time in my life and took the Garden State turnpike all the way to exit 0, Cape May. I enjoyed viewing the Victorian and Queen Anne houses and hotels and the lighthouse with maybe 50 people in the whole town, instead of the 50,000 that will be there in four months. Many of our friends from New York visited there in the summer and I see the attraction. It reminds me of Oak Bluffs, if all the gingerbread houses in the Campgrounds were larger and all over town.
Alan Slater correctly identified that a few lines from the song “Ain’t we got fun” were from the book “The Great Gatsby”. I didn’t visit Gatsby’s mansion in West Egg yesterday but I was in the area. Today’s song is much easier – “10th Avenue Freeze Out” by Bruce Springsteen.
Mark's cross-country trip 