My visit with HD, as told by HD

Sanjana Banana arrived yesterday just before I left for a seminar at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies in Philadelphia. Rather than be a bad host and leave Sanjana alone to entertain himself, I let him ride shotgun and tag along. He decided he was shy and did not want to meet my friends and colleagues, but he did get out of the car to do some sightseeing before I came home today.

Here is Sanjana behind the Pennsylvania State House, commonly known as Independence Hall. He enjoyed seeing the building where the founders debated the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He confessed that he hopes that sometime soon their vision of freedom and equality for all will be entirely fulfilled as he would like to meet and spend his life with a nice banana.


He so enjoyed Independence Hall that he leaned against a wall across the street so he could continue to enjoy it a little longer, but a little bit away from the watchful eyes of the park rangers.


He decided to check out a few other buildings near Independence Hall. Here he is outside the Second Bank of the United States. It's a nineteenth-century building (built between 1819 and 1824), so really too modern for either of our taste, but still a fine specimen of Greek Revival architecture in America.


A nice couple saw us admiring the Bank and debating whether to go in to view the portrait gallery. They offered to take our photo together. In the end, we decided to save the exhibit for another time.


Sanjana just had to see Carpenters' Hall. The First Continental Congress met here when it convened in September 1774. Sanjana told me that the building served as a hospital and an arsenal during the Revolutionary War. The banana has a healthy appreciation of early American history.


He insisted that I get a closer shot so he could show off his glorious yellow features --- and that beautiful fanlight window above the door.


I think that Sanjana most enjoyed posing with the statue of Robert Morris, the financier of the American Revolution. Once again demonstrating his knowledge of early America, Sanjana told me that George Washington wanted to appoint Morris as the first Secretary of the Treasury, but he turned it down and suggested Alexander Hamilton instead. Sanjana has good taste: this guy had money plus he looked fabulous in that hat and coat. (I didn't have the heart to remind him that Morris lost what was left of his fortune when he dabbled in land speculation after the Revolution and eventually died in poverty.)


Sanjana and I are back in Baltimore now. He is taking a nap at the moment, but I will keep everybody updated of his further adventures.