Providence may be quirky, but hey it's home
When Alice called Wonderland "curiouser and curiouser," she may as well have been describing Rhode Island. After all, what other state's most recognizable icon is a 58-foot long bug? Seth Brown has documented a mountain of these "quirky characters, roadside oddities and other offbeat stuff" in his book, Rhode Island Curiosities. Brown, a former writer for The Providence Journal, scoured the state for everything that makes Lil' Rhody what it is - eccentric, a little different, but with a real sense of our unique identity.
"I wanted the book to have everything," says Brown. "Things everyone knows are quintessential RI, like the Big Blue Bug. Things nobody knows about, like the brief history of dueling in RI. A mix of the beloved and the unknown, whether it was interesting places to visit, fascinating characters around the state, events that are fun to attend, or just random history."
Of course, there are plenty of stories in the book that we all know, like how the Arcade in downtown Providence is the oldest shopping mall in America – but did you know that the reason there are two different styles for the facades on Weybosset and Westminster was to settle a disagreement between the architects? And have you ever seen the Attorney General's building, where Patrick Lynch has a plaque with a quote from a comic book superhero?
And even though we have that we're-such-a-small-state-we-know-everything-about-it attitude, there are definitely some things in the book that come as a surprise. Providence has a "drinking team with a running problem," the Hash House Harriers, who go on long runs with frequent stops for downing a quick beer. Betcha didn't know that.
And our state rock – did you even know we had one? – is called Cumberlandite, because it's only found in that town (although it used to be called Rhodite, because it was thought to exist throughout RI and only in RI).
The most surprising thing, though, is Brown's snappy wordplay in the book. He includes limericks to accompany different stories (about RI having the most Dunkin' Donuts per capita in the country: "Though it's true that Rhode Island is small, / We like donuts much more than you all. / There are donuts to eat / Every five hundred feet, / And we'll likely add more by next fall."), and he doesn't shy away from the puns - which, he says, he included because, "I didn't want this to be just another factual book, I wanted it to be as fun as possible." From his selection of facts and oddities to his unique writing style, it seems as though Brown is a RI curiosity himself. www.insidersguide.com
