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| Samuel Johnson portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds (Wikipedia) |
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| Dr Johnson with some club members at Sir Joshua Reynolds home. (Wikipedia) The Club met once a week and members were permitted to bring a guest. They discussed important matters of the day along with anything else that struck their fancy over beefsteak and brandy. I can't help but think this cross pollination amongst men of high intellect but in different fields enhanced their creative output in their chosen discipline. "There is nothing that has been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or Inn." ~Samuel Johnson 
The just rebuilt and reopened Red Lion Pub in Chicago's Lincoln Park.
photo DNAinfoChicago
Only a couple of weeks ago, The Red Lion Pub (TRLP) reopened after having been closed for 6 long years. I have been a regular since I moved to Chicago in 1988. The old building had fallen into severe disrepair and had to be torn down and rebuilt while lawsuits and other complications were dealt with. I should quickly add that I have no financial relationship or official involvement of any kind with TRLP, I wish to see it prosper the way it once did but with a more active spirit of Dr. Johnson's Club in mind only now also with women of keen intellect in conspicuous attendance. The Lion's Den blog will highlight cultural events, institutions, and people who make great things happen in Chicago. We will encourage them to stop in at TRLP for refreshment and lively conversation in an atmosphere they will find welcoming and supportive. ~GSL |
My Dear GSL
ReplyDeleteI hope, indeed am sure, that you will enjoy the renewal of your research and studies of human nature in all its glory and frailty at new and improved TRLP, and, while there, please tip a glass to the inestimable Dr. Johnson for me.
Cheers!
My Dear Gentleman Farmer,
DeleteAs Dr Johnson once said: "Claret is the liquor for boys, Port for men, but he who aspires to be a hero must drink Brandy! I'll tip my snifter towards Dr J's portrait in your honor.
HaHa
ReplyDeleteYep
Better words, and truer, could not be spoken by the likes of you and me, but only by one of the immortals...
How intriguing. I was a member of a salon a few years ago and it was fabulous. I hope you will allow a few online interlopers to raise a glass with you in spirit.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Jen but you must make your way to Chicago someday soon to raise that glass in person. I promise to be on my best behavior...at least for that 1st round,
DeleteI've always enjoyed our blogging community as a salon of sorts. And although our discussions are not face to face we have the advantage of far more frequent interaction. And we are much better looking- poor Dr Johnson..a great writer but not very easy on the eyes.
ReplyDeleteI am saving my first taste of amber liquid for my visit to The Red Lion...
'beefsteak and brandy' sounds like a great blog name
As a looker Dr J wasn't much; as a thinker Dr J had very few peers; as a talker nobody has ever been better.
DeleteYou heard him then? Didn't think you were that old GSL.
DeleteI've read the transcripts Curator and accounts from at least a half dozen eyewitnesses.
DeleteMy most enthusiastic contrafibularities
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOSYiT2iG08
Oh that is good! Had forgotten all about those Blackadders!
DeleteShame Lord Flashheart has carked it.
DeletePublic House...not the first port of call for any intelligent woman looking for witty repartee.
ReplyDeleteBladdered men. How very stimulating!
The internet has become the domestic domain of a female force majeure, with the majority of social media being driven by we XX's!
My dear Curator, "the majority of social media' is hardly anything one would want to assume bragging rights over. The 140 character and over crowd need a safe haven from the inarticulate. We'll have to get you out early during one of our gatherings before the men get too bladdered to see how much fun it can be. If you do, I suspect you'll be there with me at last call.
DeleteWell actually, cher GSL, most ad/media companies would be delighted to have bragging rights over the billions of users. Social media encompasses a hell of a lot more than just Twitter...and you're part of it! Mensa members and even the highly articulate have been known to use it, parfois.
DeleteDr. J would have 'ad it large on the www given half the chance.
Hmmm, Chicago...long way to go for a drink, ducks. Especially as there are real pubs over here in Blighty.
Curator, I know many of your ad agency huckster brethren have wet dreams over composing that next catch phrase that will spike nappie sales in the 3rd quarter but we of more modest literary ambition need a refuge from those self-described 'creatives'.
DeleteCher GSL, how could you be expected to know any more about Advertising or Creatives than the bollocks touted on 'Mad Men' when you're down the pub. Oh, you mean copywriters!
Delete'huckster brethren'? Nope. You've lost me... barking up the wrong tree there mate.
And I hate to mention it, but anyone with a 'literary ambition', would need to be just the tiniest bit creative to con even the average medicated American six year old to that effect.
'Self-described 'creatives'', as opposed to self described 'soldiers'?
Try harder next time.
My dear Curator, my, my I must have struck a nerve. First of all to clarify I use the term 'Paratrooper' not soldier as it sounds (and is) much much sexier.
DeleteAs for Ad Agency taskings, I'm not terribly interested in how that gets sorted out.
Now as for grown-ups conning 6 year olds with 'creativity'; while that may elicit fist-bumps and high-fives at your office; we in the pubs find that line of work unseemly...one imagines that these 'creatives' spend their off hours parking their van next to playgrounds loitering about with lollipops on offer.
'Paratrooper'....Was that a badge you got in the scouts deary? Did you get your map readers badge too? Ah bless. Mummy must be so proud of her little soldier.
ReplyDeletePut the glass down sweetie, I think you've had enough to drink now.
Actually Mummy was mortified when she heard her middle aged son went off to do such a thing...but I did manage to make her quite proud in the end. A boy never outgrows a desire to do that.
ReplyDeleteWell I love Johnson and I say bravo to you for highlighting this treasure! I have never been to Chicago, but these salons would be appealing! ;-)
ReplyDeleteFunny, I was thinking about the 18th century all week as I have been reading McCullough's biography of John Adams this week. Now I need to see the miniseries. There were so many giants, then, weren't there, and they were all bloody geniuses, speaking English, French, Latin, Greek, German. Puts those of us who barely speak two to shame....
Yes indeed Wendy, John Adams was a genius but then so was his wife Abigail as I'm sure you well know upon reading McCullough's fine biography.
DeleteDear GSL & Curator, I do hope there's plenty of sawdust on the floor of this intellectual oasis! Claire
ReplyDeleteWelcome back my dear Claire! Yes, Curator is a glutton for punishment as I suspect next she'll want me to pull her hair and sharply deliver a few open hands to her lush hindquarters.
DeleteNow Claire, we need to get you outfitted with a proper avatar suggestive of your sharp wit and alluring charm. That generic silhouette just doesn't cut it.
I was wondering that myself Claire!! Whew..
DeleteI thought I left a comment but it's not here...I can't wait for the inter web salon of sorts Gsl and going by the look of things this may become a regular jaunt!
ReplyDeleteNaomi, we are hoping you stop in with great frequency.
DeleteI like that he included women too, a true intellectual and learned man. Gosh he wasn't a looker was he? Still I would have given anything to be a fly on the wall during those salons.
ReplyDeleteOUr bookclub has returned to its old salon plus dinner days with the addition of a new member who is like having an English professor in the group.
The pub looks just the ticket and your blog is for sure attracting same salon with the olde pub feel, love it! (Just wish i could eat the fish and chips to go with it...or is it like or the pubs in London now serving Thai - both work!)
Jody, he did far more than just include women; he sang their praises wherever he went and rhetorically body-slammed any man who dared to give them short shrift. The female intellectuals of his day adored him for this and it pisses me off that he is being allowed to fade into obscurity. He is my all time hero and on my post after next, I'll go into why I hold him in such high regard.
DeleteJust read a little more about him, so accomplished from such an early age and cross when his parents would show off these accomplishments. He had tourettes, the tics, wonder also if it extended to his speech... One of my best friends has a son with tourettes and it has been such a challenge, I'm going to send her this link which is such an inspiration.
DeleteOh he was a frightful creature to see as he was quite large (over 6 feet which was enormous then), deeply scarred from scrofula, and with those Tourette's tics (which experts now suspect he suffered from). Those seeing him for the first time spoke of how unsettling it was. He didn't suffer fools gladly and was often referred to as a "virtuous bully".
DeleteHodge? Hodge? Are you here?
ReplyDeleteHello Bertie! Google directed me to Urban Dictionary regarding 'Hodge' and that did give me a giggle!
DeleteSir, from you comment I infer not to expect oysters. As to any pearls of wisdom, I will hold my judgement.
ReplyDeleteMust go, before the mistress finds that I have slipped out the cat flap.
Oh my goodness! I forgot all about Hodge, Dr J's cat, for some reason but I do remember him having affection for The Thrale's dog. My apologies Bertie; please don't take it personal. I haven't read "The Life..." in at least 15 years.
DeleteDr J would go out and buy the oysters for Hodge so the servants (especially Francis Barber) wouldn't come to dislike the creature. Very telling of Dr J's fine character.
I wish I could join you for a drink at the Red Lion! Since I can't do that I will have to swing by your blog often. My, there are some interesting comments here. I think you've got yourself an online salon! Or is it a saloon? Ha. Let me go grab my glass of wine!
ReplyDeleteMy dear Jill, you simply must make your way to Chicago someday soon. I'd be more than happy to assist in arranging an itinerary that people of all ages and interests would find most interesting which we would hope to also include looking in on us for a dram, pint, and nibble.
DeleteDarling G,
ReplyDeleteWell, we are arriving late to the Red Lion Salon, but what a party (or is it bun fight?) this is turning out to be!
We regard the reviving of the roaring Lion to be admirable and we should certainly not wish to miss the cut and thrust of intellectual repartee that, undoubtedly, it is going to attract. We too think that the literary salons, so active in the past, are long overdue for a reinvention.
Here, behind the Net Curtain, Salon Concerts and Soirees are still in evidence. Indeed, they take place regularly in our own Morning Room and in a friend's apartment with a mix of invited guests which we can well imagine being assembled in the leather armchairs (we fantasise) of the Red Lion. Chicago will surely be placed firmly on the map and, should we ever find ourselves in the neighbourhood, we shall be beating a path to its door.
We have to say that we despair at the numbers of restaurant goers who, even whilst consuming soup, are to be found on their mobile telephones. Where has the art of conversation gone we ask ourselves?! Let there be more entrepreneurial spirits such as the minds behind the Red Lion and may Dr J's spirit live on.....
I'm sure an invitation to your Morning Room is much coveted amongst the Budapest cognoscenti and any gathering with uber charming and darling Jane & Lance is where I hope to find myself one day soon.
DeleteDarlings J & L, we will start to assemble a group of worthies to help make your welcome into The Red Lion hopefully in the near future most enjoyable and stimulating.
Soon is not soon enough for us, darling G. Seriously consider Budapest.......the Opera Season opens in September, we have a bevy of young talent to entertain and delight you, the Music Academy, an Art Nouveau treasure, has a full programme of musical programmes and we should absolutely love to be your hosts and guides.
DeleteAs for Chicago.....well we know two people who live there......so we may well be propping up that bar in the Red Lion sooner than you think!
I haven't visited Chicago since 1981 and suddenly feel the need for a return trip. Your Lion's Den Salon is off to a roaring start. It's not for the faint of heart nor the short on intellect! Bravo!
ReplyDeletexo ~J