Ben Revere’s Own Personal Rosebud

Ceats

— Ben Revere (@BenRevere9) November 13, 2013

At the beginning, which is also kinda the end, of Orson Welles’ 1941 cinema classic Citizen Kane, newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane whispers a single word, rosebud, before shuffling off this mortal coil. The search by a reporter, Jerry Thompson, for the possible relevance of that word to the life of the famous and troubled Kane serves as the device by which the film is driven forward. Ultimately, Thompson’s search is fruitless — even as the mystery is resolved for the viewer in the film’s closing frames.

One hopes that Ben Revere’s tweet of Tuesday afternoon wasn’t composed amidst the Philadelphia center fielder’s death throes. Because it would be horrible for Ben Revere to have died, is one reason. And because it’d represent a grave misuse of one’s final living moments, is another. That Revere could be found making inquiries about the coiffure of a certain college athlete several hours later suggests that he likely remains in peak physical and mental condition. Good news, that.

What remains a mystery, however, is the precise significance of Revere’s own cryptic utterance. Is Ceats a playful reference to a combination of noted English-language poets? Is it a sly allusion to the Christmas holiday, insofar as it resembles cleats but without the -l- (hence, Noël). One doesn’t know.

For the moment, one suspects merely that, like Kane’s Rosebud, Ceats was something that Ben Revere couldn’t get or lost, that it’s just a piece in a jigsaw puzzle — a missing piece.

In any case, reader, the meaning of Ceats remains opaque to all but Revere. For our part, we’d better get along, anyway. Otherwise, we’ll miss the train.