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More information, October 19, 2006. As luck would have it, there's a high-visibility event tonight at Faneuil Hall; a candidates' debate. The name "Faneuil Hall" is being said all over the airwaves in town today and this evening. I monitored two radio stations and five television stations, and kept a tally of how people pronounced Faneuil Hall. This is a count of different people, ignoring how many times they said the name. Here's my non-scientific tally, listed by what they rhymed with:

18 panel
11 Daniel
5 manual
0 Manuel (English pronunciation)
0 Manuel (Spanish pronunciation)

WBZ-AM, WBUR-FM, WBZ-TV, WCVB-TV, WHDH-TV, NECN-CTV, WFXT-TV

The Grasshopper

I believe the grasshopper "spy detector" was used during the war of 1812, not the Revolution. I'll look for more definitive sources, but I hope it isn't a case of urban legend. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Tjcoppet (talkcontribs).

I flagged that for a citation. It doesn't make much sense, because there were lots of Americans on both sides of the revolution (often families split down the middle), so a Boston-born spy from the royalist side could know about the grasshopper just as easily as a Boston-born spy from the patriot side could. I recommend removing it if no one comes up with a credible source in the next few weeks. David 17:15, 2 December 2007 (UTC)
"Knowledge of the grasshopper was used as a shibboleth during the Revolution period. The people would ask suspected spies to identity the object on the top of Faneuil Hall; if they answered correctly, then they were free; if not, they were convicted as British spies.[citation needed]" After years, there is no evidence to support this claim. It's absurd to think that only Bostonian revolutionaries would know about the grasshopper, and Bostonian loyalists would not. This is the kind of nonsense perpetrated by ill-informed tour guides, and I suspect that's the origin. But there is no secondary or primary evidence cited to support the claim, after being flagged for years, so I am deleting it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.68.134.1 (talk) 16:13, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

Factual discrepancy?

From the article:

In 1806, the hall was greatly expanded by Charles Bulfinch, doubling its height and width and adding a third floor.

And yet I note that an image, allegedly from 1776, shows the Hall with three stories. It would seem either the date of the addition of the third floor must be incorrect as written, or else the image does not show how the hall truly looked in 1776. The information on the image describes it as dating to 1830. It would seem likely that the artist in 1830 was not aware that the third floor did not date to 1776. I suggest the caption of the image be altered to "1830 imagining of Faneuil Hall in 1776 with anachronistic third floor." Cheers, Kasreyn 19:58, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Page Needs Work

I will be editing this page and re-writing it so that it is more Wikified. Any help or suggestions would be helpfull. The subject deserves a better page. Dough007 (talk) 02:53, 22 February 2008 (UTC).