The fact is myth is fact.
The story of Washington throwing a rock across the Rappahannock comes to us from Mason (a/k/a Parson) Weems, and as one historian told me, "The trouble with Weems is that he isn't lying all the time."
Indeed we did try to reproduce the feat for Rediscovering George Washington, our PBS documentary, with half a dozen pitchers from the Stafford High School baseball team. Two of them reached the other side twice. It is not superhuman, just hard, and for young George to have done it would have been impressive.
2 comments:
I don't know the legend but I do know this.
1. A well shaped rock is easier to throw far than a baseball is.
2. Rivers change from decade to decade. The river might have been narrower then. But this aside,
3. If young George hadn't been able to outperform four of six pitchers from Stafford High School he would not have become the first and arguably greatest President of these United States.
I don't know the legend but I do know this.
1. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
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