Dylan did not attend Obama's reception for US Nobel Prize winners
His deliberate absence is open to all kinds of interpretation and of course speculation...
Well, at least the bard did not burst into tears or threaten to tear up his mighty US passport should the Great man of the people Trump win the presidential elections. No Sir, Bob wouldn't do such a thing - not if you have heard him sing his folk hero Woody Guthrie's This Land is your land (a sentiment that African and indeed other immigrants must surely also espouse once they are certified US citizens and maybe, not before)
Why do I say, "mighty US passport"? Because it's mighty – like the American $ dollar! This perception goes back to a prank played on one of our US friends in Salone - a chap from Wisconsin – an exchange student by the name of Doug Henning ( incidentally also a great cartoonist, nicknamed "Poe" -as Edgar Allan Poe and like Poe ( Tales of mystery and imagination) Doug had a good sense of the macabre and was the cartoonist in my one time edition of "The Vulture"; another good friend Herr Strehl confided in me that the real reason Doug was nicknamed Poe was because his head (smile) was shaped like a pawpaw – but to get to the point : they once got Poe arrested - told the Police constable somewhere in Bo that he was "a spy" (such things happen in Africa you know) – but somehow Poe had his US passport on him, and so what did he do ? He slammed it down on the police constable's desk and thundered "I am an American citizen : You can't do this to me!!!!"
Of course the poor constable collapsed under that sort of pressure and as Chief Aluko usually says,
and there you have it….
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