Fools Walk Where Wise Men Fear to Tread

Ben Imitating a Fool

Ben Franklin observes:

"It is ill-manners to silence a fool, and cruelty to let him go on."

Hah! You're not going to silence me that easily, Mr. Franklin! I'll talk where I want! Hell, I'll even walk where I want!

One Thing of Free Counsel: Useless Information

Good as Gold

Ben Franklin says:

"If you'd know the value of money, go and borrow some."

And I add, if you'd want to know how much more it's worth than that, just try stealing some.

Ah, you were lucky!

Franklinstein

Lucky he didn't get himself killed!

Ben Franklin says:

"Diligence is the mother of good luck."

Gasp! You mean luck's not a super power?

An idle thought

Ben in an Idle Moment

Benjamin Franklin says:

"Be always ashamed to catch thyself idle."

Nay. Be always proud that one is attentive enough to catch oneself idle!

Sound Notion?

Benjamin Franklin Memorial

Benjamin Franklin said:

As we must account for every idle word,
so we must for every idle silence.

Hmpf! There's just no pleasing some folk! And then we go and treat them like an idol! Now that's an idle sound of silence, even if not a neon light!

The first American soft drink?

Franklin Orders

Another Sprite

Benjamin Franklin was first to use the name of America's truly first soft drink:

A house without woman and firelight,
is like a body without soul or sprite.

He neglected to capitalize the name (and to capitalize on the name), but we see to our surprise that "Sprite" - not "Coke" - was our first soft drink!

Sigh . . . misheard lyrics

Linda Ronstadt

I liked Linda Ronstadt's singing, way back when, but I now find that I was an inattentive listener to "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow":

Is this a lasting treasure
Or just a moment's pleasure
Can I believe the magic of your size
Will you still love me tomorrow?

I listened to that stanza in "Will You Still Love Me Tomorow" countless times and never heard it right. But in looking up the lyrics, I find the reference was to the innocuous word "sighs" rather than to the more racy, salacious "size."

Is this a lasting treasure
Or just a moment's pleasure
Can I believe the magic of your sighs
Will you still love me tomorrow?

How tame. And how wrong of me to mishear so well.

Be Not Procrastinacious!

Sagacious Ben

Benjamin Franklin offers some sage advice:

"Have you somewhat to do tomorrow; do it today."

I agree with the bourgeois advice from the frank Franklin, and offer my own, similar advice:

 "Have you somewhat to do today; do it yesterday."

See? I have learned from the man!

Franklinly Speaking, You are my everything . . .

Ben in Love?
Yes, at times . . .

Benjamin Franklin offers an unusual gradient of values:

"Poverty wants some things, Luxury many things, Avarice all things."

Franklin may be using "wants" in the sense of "lacks."

Let me add a detail to Franklin's words:

"Love wants but one thing . . . because it is everything."

I've heard-tell that Franklin would agree . . .

Blazing a Trail of Glory!

The Generous Sun

Benjamin Franklin wrote another maxim:

"The Sun never repents of the good he does, nor does he ever demand a recompence."

Am I alone on this point, namely, that even to think of repenting for having done good suggests a moral flaw?

Franklin on: Let's Forget about Tomorrow!

An Embarrassed Franklin?

Benjamin Franklin wrote words that he didn't always follow:

"To-morrow, every fault is to be amended;
but that To-morrow never comes, thank God,
for there'd be no end to amending."

Actually, that is not all from the hand of Mr. Franklin,
for I added my bit, a couple of copper coins
that I also call "my two cents."

Benjamin the Orator

Franklin on the Orator

Benjamin Franklin once orated:

"Fear to do ill, and you need fear naught else."

Okay, yeah, but there's always danger . . .

and let's not forget the 'naughty' else,

which might not rise to the status of ill,

but which might ought be avoided, anyway.

Not Doggerel, but Caterwaul!

Bob Snider

He beat me to it . . .

In Part, I am 'Write'

Portly Franklin

I meant partly, for Benjamin Franklin almost wrote:

Be neither silly, nor cunning, but wise, in the use of the comma, economize!

(And shun to exclamationize!)

Franklin's Name Belied His Aim

Benjamin Franklin

An Edge Over You

Sitting under a tall tree pine, Benjamin Franklin did once opine:

"Necessity never made a good bargain."

(Except for with the other guy, of course.)

And forget not young man Newton, too, who made the universe anew!

He felled the apple what caused the fall and re-fused heaven and earth for all!

Shedding a Coat

Benjaminerisms:

Even Franklin

 had his

Bad Hair Days

Benjamin Franklin wrote the following "speciesist" remark:

The Wolf sheds his Coat once a Year, his Disposition never.

Which is good, albeit speciesist, because a 'disposition' would be damned hard to clean up!

Franklinish Irony

Money

"He's a Fool that cannot conceal his Wisdom."

Said the man who grew rich selling this very same sort of folksy wisdom compiled in Poor Richard's Almanack, which he published annually from 1732 to 1757, a quarter of a century, all told.

Undecidable Country?

Dam Nation

The Neitherlands: Neither above sea nor below water.

Franklin was very smart!

Lucky Franklin

He even wrote his own autobiography!

Franklinly Speaking . . .

Lucky Franklin

Having been poor is no shame, but having been twice poor likely is!

Benjamin Franklin spreads the word

The Word

Franklin: Do not do what you would not have known.

Fool: I would not have known had you not told me, but could you give an example?

I see, said the blind man . . .

Well-Digger Done
Cross Eyes
if
Double Image
Desired

"Well done is better than well said," said the welldigger well, his work well done.

The Wisest American?

Benjamin Franklin

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise enough to ignore this bit of clever nonsense.

Aspiration, Aspersion, Asp

An Asp

Here's the main rebel angel, but he seems also meant for more than mere rebellion, given his grand title "Lucifer," the Light-Bearer:

(Isaiah 14:12) How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! (13) For thou hast said in thine heart, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: (14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."

The asp aspires higher than mere serpent or mere snake, and moreover, the asp is venomous. Henceforth is that old serpent, Satan, to be called by us an asp as well as the more familiar "Satan," which means, "The Adversary," and is thus another aspersion cast upon him! Consider these lines from Milton's Paradise Lost 4.835-837:

Think not, revolted spirit, thy shape the same,
Or undiminished brightness, to be known
As when thou stood'st in heaven upright and pure.

Such is his transformed aspect (though the word is not used), from the Latin term "aspicere," meaning "to look at."

None of these speculations is scholarly, merely pre-scholarly rambling . . .

Some dogmas . . .

Dinosaur in the Ark

. . . are beyond catastrophic.

Lighthouse Cliché

Lighthouse

There's a venerable old prosaicism what says a platitude's nothing more than a flat attitude with a shibbolethic bromide as its lighthouse cliché.

He who laughs last . . .

Joke?

. . . didn't get the joke.

Wisdom Gained from Pain?

E. C. Dowson

Roses Riotously Flung

Fling them all if fling ye must, but go on them not bare of foot.

(Sigh, Nada.)

A Dyslexic Reading of Isaiah 2:4:

The Letter T
on
a
Shopping
Bag?

"[He] hammers words into plowshares."

(He has to spell it out for us?)

Only if God's a monster . . .

Not
Just
Desserts

. . . will we get our just deserts.