Emperor Norton has family in South Africa. His grand niece is a friend and tells a great story.

My father, a South African journalist, wrote a piece about Norton which appeared in the SA papers in the late 90s. The day the article was published, our friend emailed: "That's our great Uncle Joshua, the family always wondered what happened to him."

If you look at the history of Norton you'll see a handful of references: he came to San Francisco from South Africa, by way of England.

And not a single filthy word! Whodda thunk.

Surprisingly, the impressions that I gleaned from that comic all seem to correspond to the actual facts and events of his life (apart from any events directly caused by anthropomorphic concepts making wagers of course).

That aside: superb. I learned a lot, and enjoyed myself immensely reading this.

Some might categorize Joshua Norton as insane, but the real insanity is that people are giving up on the ideals of freedom and justice that were the cornerstones of Norton's faith and wisdom.