Part of Branford College, on the campus of Yale University, New Haven, CT.
My Apologies to all my loyal subjects. The King of Schmooze was incredibly busy in the month of March and as a result, I didn't have a chance to post as often as I would have liked, or should have.
This past weekend I had the interesting experience of journeying to New Haven, CT. What, you may ask, was the King of Schmooze doing in New Haven? Well, aside from trying to avoid being shot, mugged, or various other non-flattering things, I decided to visit Yale University. Having visited Boston last summer and not visiting "Hah-vahd", I thought it was my royal duty to pay a visit to the historic rival to that great school.
Yale University was founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School in the home of Abraham Pierson, its first rector, in Killingworth, Connecticut. In 1716 the school moved to New Haven and, with the generous gift by Elihu Yale of nine bales of goods, 417 books, and a portrait and arms of King George I, was renamed Yale College in 1718.
On High Street, in the middle of the Yale University campus, stands a cold-looking, nearly windowless Greco-Egyptian building with padlocked iron doors. This is the home of Yale's most famous secret society, Skull and Bones, and it is also, in a sense, one of the many homes of the family of George W. Bush, Yale '68. Bush men have been Yale men and Bonesmen for generations. Prescott Bush, George W.'s grandfather, Yale '17, was a legendary Bonesman; he was a member of the band that stole for the society what became one of its most treasured artifacts: a skull that was said to be that of the Apache chief Geronimo. He went on to a life of power and renown, becoming a U.S. senator. George Herbert Walker Bush, George W.'s father, Yale '48, was also a Bonesman. George W., Yale '68, was a Bonesman, too.
It was rather interesting to walk around the campus and check out the architecture, many of it from the early 1700's. It was also interesting looking into the ties of the Bush family to the University as it afforded me the opportunity to research a bit about the Skull and Bones Society. An interesting aspect about this is that my friend, "Sc-ibson", played "Travis Wheeler" in the 2000 film "The Skulls" which featured Joshua Jackson, Paul Walker (The Fast and The Furious, 2 Fast, 2 Furious), William Petersen (now of CSI fame), and hottie Leslie Bibb.
Personally, I think it was some of Scibson's best work since his comedically powerful role of "Frat Guy" in the Bob Saget epic, "Dirty Work" in 1998. Anyway, I digress.
Yale was an interesting place to visit, although New Haven has some dubious qualities to it. I discovered that it has a reputation for "an above average crime rate". Oddly, I wasn't informed of this until after I went for a stroll to Yale through one of the 'dodgy' neighbourhoods. I thought it was kind of odd at the time that I was the only white person I saw.
Regardless, KOS did make it safely back from Yale and New Haven. Another interesting piece of history concerning New Haven is that it was the port where in 1839, the Schooner Amistad was towed into port. In 1997, Stephen Spielberg brought this incident too mass public attention by making a movie about it.
What historians used to refer to dismissively as the Amistad Incident, is the story of a group of Africans who were captured in Mende (present day Sierra Leone) and brought in chains to the Americas - and who revolted, captured their ship, La Amistad, and eventually were seized off the coast of New England. The captives won their freedom in a case before the United States Supreme Court and ultimately sailed back to their homeland in Africa. Former US President John Quincy Adams helped to argue their case before the Supreme Court.
So though you go, history mixed with a little bit of Hollywood, all in New Haven, CT.
