When a statue of King George III was pulled down in New York, it was a good sign for the city, since there were times that it felt that the spirit of Independence was rather squashed by the sight of the British fleet, which was still arriving.

A brief digression: several years ago (ugh, longer ago than I care to remember) I took the opportunity to visit the City of the Museum of New York. It’s quite a cool museum that has hundreds of thousands of objects in its collection, with several thousands on display at any given time. They currently have a special exhibit called The Occupied City, which deals with New York City during the early years of the American Revolution.

According to an article I recently read in Smithsonian Magazine, which provided some of my research material for today’s episode, the Museum of the City of New York has, as part of this exhibit, an opportunity to virtually pull down the statue of King George III. Who can pass up something like that?

No kidding, if you’re in Manhattan, budget yourself a few hours to see this museum. You’re guaranteed to learn a lot of fascinating things. Then head on over to the New York Historical Society. They already pulled down their statue of King George III (today, in fact), but there’s still plenty to see and do. They’re on opposite sides of Central Park and about 30 blocks apart, but if you do it in that order, you’ll end your day close to Zabar’s and that’s a whole other experience for you.

Man, I miss living in New York.

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