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The curators at the New York Public Library have put together a display in celebration of July Fourth.
The theme of this program will center on Sparking The Revolution: “No Taxation Without Representation.” The items chosen for this display include Benjamin Franklin’s annotated copy of a pro-Stamp Act pamphlet, an engraving of the Boston Massacre, a copy of the Continental Congress’s Olive Branch Petition, and a rare copy of the first New York printing of the Declaration of Independence.
According to the press release, visitors will see items that that spotlight on “key historic moments surrounding the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence. A key focus of the display is the 250th anniversary of the Stamp Act, a wildly unpopular British tax on all paper used by the American colonists, and one of the critical sparks that launched the fight for American independence.”
You've heard the term mesmerized before, and you've likely heard of a blind study in medical research (in which study participants are unaware of whether they have been given a treatment or a placebo). But do you know what these two terms have in common? Benjamin Franklin!
Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled all of France Written by Mara Rockliff. Illustrated by Iacopo Bruno. Candlewick, 2015
When Benjamin Franklin arrived in France seeking support for the American cause, Paris was all abuzz about recent advances in science, but one man in particular was drawing much attention - Dr. Franz Mesmer. Like the invisible gas that was recently proven to buoy giant passenger-carrying balloons when burned, Dr. Mesmer claimed that he, too, had discovered a powerful new invisible force.
Dr. Mesmer said this forced streamed from the stars and flowed into his wand. When he stared into his patients' eyes and waved the wand, things happened.
Women swooned.
Men sobbed.
Children fell down in fits.
Mesmer and his practitioners claimed to cure illnesses in this manner, but was is true? Or was it quackery? King Louis XVI wanted to know, and Benjamin Franklin was sent to find out.
Mesmerized is one of those wonderful books that combines history with science and humor. Using the scientific method, Benjamin Franklin was able to deduce that Dr. Mesmer had indeed discovered something, but not the something he had claimed!
Delightfully humorous and informative illustrations, a section on the scientific method (Oh La La ... La Science!). and a list of source books and articles make Mesmerized a triple-play - science, humor, and history. Go ahead, be mesmerized!
“A Full Belly is the Mother of all Evil,” Benjamin Franklin counseled the readers of Poor Richard’s Almanack. For some mysterious reason this aphorism hasn’t had the sticking power of some of the inventor’s more famous sayings, like “he who lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.” Most of us are more inclined to see a full belly as one of life’s blessings. The offending epigram, however, can’t be described as an aberration. Franklin’s writings are filled with variations on this advice: “A full Belly makes a dull brain”; “The Muse starves in a Cook’s shop”; and “Three good meals a day makes bad living.” It’s no wonder that one canny writer has taken advantage of the unquenchable American appetite for both the founding fathers and diet books to publish The Benjamin Franklin Diet, a complete guide to slimming down, eighteenth-century style.
Franklin’s antipathy to a full belly reflected his Puritan upbringing, which stigmatized gustatory pleasures as low or impure. When he was growing up, he recalled in his Autobiography, “little or no Notice was ever taken of what related to the Victuals on the table, whether it was well or ill dressed, in or out of season, of good or bad flavour, preferable of inferior.” Franklin claimed to have thoroughly adopted this legacy of indifference to food, but there is good evidence to the contrary. He abandoned an early commitment to vegetarianism when, on board the ship that carried him away from bondage to his brother in Boston, he succumbed to the temptation to indulge in a catch of cod. As he confessed, “I had formerly been a great Lover of fish, & when this came hot out of the Frying Pan, it smeled admirably well.” Reasoning that fish ate other fish, and thus why shouldn’t he, the pragmatic Franklin “din’d upon Cod very heartily.” The famous portrait of Franklin by Joseph Siffred Duplessis, painted decades later in France, suggests that he gained no better control of his appetites as he matured. Not even a hero worshipper could call the man thin. A second chin falls heavy below his jaw line, his belly strains against the buttons of his sumptuous waistcoat, and his arms bear a resemblance to fattened sausages.
Not a total hypocrite, Franklin did include passages in his writing that treat the pleasures of the table more positively. Poor Richard’s advice that “Fools makes Feasts and Wise Men eat them” suggests that frugality, more than distaste, motivated Franklin’s advice be temperate. During his embassy in Paris, when Franklin sought to win France over to the American cause, he ate out six nights a week. And without a doubt he enjoyed many of the nice things he was served, such as îles flottantes and champagne.
A proud American, Franklin also sought to introduce his French friends to some of the glories of his native cuisine. He insisted that American corn flour could make a sweeter bread than wheat alone (several of the philosophes were engaged in pursuit of a more nutritious bread recipe to improve the condition of the peasantry, who derived the majority of their calories from the staff of life). Later, after his return to Philadelphia, Franklin sent his friends shipments of Pennsylvania hams – remarkable for the sweetness of their fat, which he attributed to the pigs’ subsisting on corn.
If you want to try Benjamin Franklin’s recipe for corn bread you can find it in the appendix to Gilbert Chinard’s wonderful 1958 essay “Benjamin Franklin on the Art of Eating.” This little pamphlet, printed by the American Philosophical Society, contains a number of recipes found among Franklin’s papers, few of which could be described as dietetic. Franklin’s recipe for roasted pig pays great attention to producing a delicious crackling. His oyster sauce is heavy on the cream. And his puff pastry, recommended for encasing his apple pudding, calls for a pound of butter. Frarnklin’s apple pudding makes a tempting proposition for a food historian on the eve of Thanksgiving, especially since, like many eighteenth-century recipes, Franklin’s terse instructions offer just enough detail to inspire certainty that the end result would be inedible by twentieth-century standards. What better reason could there be to break out the mixing bowl!
* * * * *
To make an apple pudding.
Make a good puff-paste, roll it out half an inch thick, pare your apples, and core them, enough to fill the crust, and close it up, tie it in a cloth and boil it. If a small pudding, two hours: if a large one three or four hours. When it is enough turn it into your dish, cut a piece of the crust out of the top, butter and sugar it to your palate; lay on the crust again, and send it to table hot.
* * * * *
The sense of the unfamiliar has always been what compels me about history, it gives me the feeling of discovery and assures me that I am not just finding my own reflection in the sources. I, for example, do not bring a love of boiling to my reading of dessert recipes. Baking I expect – hours of boiling, not so much. I boil few foods, and those only briefly. I boil pasta 7 to 12 minutes, always anxious to drain the pot while the noodles are still al dente. Sometimes I boil green beans, but just for a couple minutes and often I steam them instead. I boil eggs, but I like the yolks soft so I don’t leave them in for more than six minutes. I never boil dessert pastries. But Benjamin Franklin told me to, so for the sake of historical knowledge I threw all my cooking know-how to the wind and set out to slavishly follow his orders.
Difficulties confronted me long before I arrived at the boiling. To begin, Franklin directed that I make a puff pastry, mixing four pints, or a quarter of a peck, of flour with half a pound of butter. How much did eighteenth-century dry pints weigh? And did they weigh the same in the colonies as they did in England? Today the imperial wet pint is four ounces more than the American wet pint (20 oz vs. 16 oz). One thing is for certain, whatever the exact weight of an eighteenth-century dry pint might be, four of them is a whopping amount. I made the executive decision to weight a pint at 16 oz and cut the recipe in half so that I didn’t completely empty our flour bin. Halving the butter as well, I ended up with a very dry mix:
The next direction was to add cold water until a stiff dough formed. Having spent the past twenty-five years of baking trying to add as little water to my pie dough as possible to prevent it turning tough, I needed to tamp down all my better instincts to pour in the cup and a half of cold water that my dry mix required to come together.
The brick of paste that resulted was so hard that it had to be beat into submission to follow the next directions, which called for the dough to be rolled out, buttered, rolled up, rolled out, and buttered again, nine to ten successive times until another half pound of butter had been added.
After an hour of buttering and rolling, I was left with a lovely, pliable, yellow dough, which I rolled out “half a thumb’s thickness” and set on a cheese cloth.
Franklin’s recipe calls next for chopped cored apples to be placed on the dough. No seasoning is done at this stage: no spices added to the apples, no sugar, no butter, no lemon. Just apples. How big? How many? Over how much of the dough? It doesn’t say.
Nor did the recipe explain how to seal the dough. I went for crimping and ended up with something that looked like a giant Cornish pasty.
At least until I wrapped it up in pastry and began the boiling, whence it commenced to look more like a brain. It was hard to commit willful destruction of this beautiful pasty, rather than pop the parcel into a hot oven where it might grow golden and crisp. What was the purpose of building up 10 layers of lamination only to melt out all the butter in a bubbling pot? Again, Franklin was mute.
The cooking instructions said to boil the pudding from two to four hours depending on its size. Unsure of the standard of measurement, I decided on three hours. There were no further cooking directions and perhaps I should have just let it be, but worried that the pudding wasn’t getting cooked on the top, which bounced above the bubbling water, I flipped the package each hour. Perhaps if I hadn’t, the pudding would have developed more of a crust.
For the final step, Franklin directs that the top of the pudding be removed, sugar and butter be mixed in with the apples, then the top replaced and the whole served immediately. When I cut away the muslin and lifted the soggy lid I found that the apples inside had reduced to a beautiful sauce within the boiled pastry casing. I added some chopped butter and brown sugar, then closed the pudding back up and let the flavors meld. I can’t say the result would win first prize in a pie contest, it wouldn’t even win honorable mention. But I can report that the mess tasted quite nice in a bland, comforting, soft, sort of way. Not a bad match for turkey at all.
Featured image: “The First Thanksgiving,” Jean Leone Gerome Ferris (c. 1912). Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 6-3 opinion that “ first sale doctrine” applies to books purchased overseas.
The court decided that Supap Kirtsaeng did not violate copyright when he purchased textbooks overseas to sell to friends and families in the United States. Textbook publisher Wiley had sued Kirtsaeng for reselling these books.
It’s that time again: time to set resolutions and goals for ourselves as we enter the New Year. In this excerpt from Pursuing the Good Life, the late Christopher Peterson puts the spotlight on Benjamin Franklin, encouraging us to take the statesman a little more seriously… not for his political or scientific achievements, but for the way he set and cultivated his personal goals. Peterson shows that whether our resolutions are set in the beginning of January or halfway through the year, Franklin’s approach is one that we can all take some notes from.
Net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones. —Benjamin Franklin
I am writing this reflection on the last day of the year. Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? I just read an article on the most typical resolutions made by adults in the United States, and I was struck by how many of them embody the strengths of character that have been the subject of my research: spending more time with friends and family (love), saying no to cigarettes and alcohol (self-regulation), getting organized (prudence), learning something new (love of learning), helping others (kindness), getting fi t and losing weight (perseverance), and so on. Another common resolution is climbing out of debt, which in today’s world probably requires creativity coupled with good judgment.
If you want to make your resolutions happen, I suggest one more: taking Benjamin Franklin seriously.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) is of course widely acclaimed as a statesman and scientist, but he may also deserve credit as America’s fi rst positive psychologist. Not only did he enumerate 13 praiseworthy character strengths (virtues), but he also took on the challenge of cultivating each of them, using himself as a research subject (Franklin, 1791/1962).
Franklin characterized each of the virtues of interest to him in terms of what he called their precepts . In modern psychological language, these precepts were behavioral markers of the virtue in question. For example, the precepts for industry were “lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions” and for temperance were “eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation” (p. 67).
From my perspective, too many of Franklin’s precepts are phrased in terms of what a person should not do, refl ecting his concern with what contemporary virtue ethicists call corrective virtues , those that protect against human inclinations to act in bad ways. But good character is not simply the absence of bad character. Just because people refrain from mean-spirited actions does not make them kind, any more than being free from anxiety or depression necessarily makes people happy.
Nonetheless, the value of his precepts is that they are behavioral, observable, and countable. The goals they represent are hard and specifi c, which modern psychologists know are more effective in motivating change than the vague “do your best” (DYB) goals that many of us have.
Franklin’s own program of character cultivation was prescient. He recognized that exhortation would not suffi ce to change anyone, including himself, which is a point still not fully grasped by some proponents of today’s character education. Merely hanging a character-relevant poster on a classroom wall (or for that matter, the Ten Commandments) will not lead to change.
I spent my elementary school years staring daily at the periodic table of elements, and that did not make me into a chemist or even into a passable student of chemistry. What is needed is a concrete strategy of changing behavior. Franklin believed, as do I, that most people want to be good and decent. The problem is that we may not know how to do it. One does not tell a depressed patient simply to cheer up or a person prone to procrastination to just do it. If they knew how to be cheerful or how to get things done, then they would do so. What is more helpful is to tell them how to do these things. The same point applies to the cultivation of strengths of character.
Franklin also recognized that it would be too daunting to attempt to strengthen all virtues at the same time, so he prioritized them and tackled them in order. He further observed that the strengthening of one virtue might help with the subsequent cultivation of other virtues. For example, Franklin reasoned that the virtue of moderation should facilitate the virtue of silence, given that the latter requires the skills involved in the former.
Anticipating the modern behavior change strategy of “objectively” monitoring progress, Franklin made a book, with one page for each of the virtues he wished to strengthen. He organized each page by the day of the week. At the end of each day, he would think back over his actions and make “a black mark” if he had failed in following the precept. Again, I gently criticize Franklin for emphasizing his transgressions rather than his positive accomplishments, but that followed from the way he defined the precepts for each virtue.
He resolved to address one virtue per week, in the order he had prioritized, so that in 13 weeks he would have addressed all of them in succession. Then he would do it again, and in a year he would have completed four courses. Again, this is very modern, because Franklin anticipated the need for the maintenance of change.
His goal was to have a clean book, and to help him along the way, he included in his log relevant maxims and prayers, much as people today use Post-Its on their refrigerator to keep their goals front and center. For example, my own refrigerator door has a Post-It asking “Are you really that hungry?”
Franklin judged his program a success, in that he accorded himself fewer black marks as time passed. Still, some virtues were harder for him to strengthen than others. In particular, the strength of order gave him great trouble, as he was wont to scatter about his things and could typically rely on his good memory to know where things were amidst chaos. (Does this sound familiar to any of you readers?) In any event, he decided he was incorrigible with respect to this virtue and decided to accept the fault as part of who he was. From a positive psychology perspective, this is okay. No one can have it all, although to Franklin’s credit, he tried to change before he accepted the less than desirable conclusion.
Franklin did fret that his “success” with respect to some of the virtues refl ected changes in the appearance of the character strength rather than in its reality, but from my vantage point, this is a diffi cult distinction to maintain if we regard character strengths as habits. “Fake it until you can make it” is one of the slogans of Alcoholics Anonymous, and it means that if we behave in a sober way, no matter how deliberate or stilted our initial attempts, then eventually we will be sober. We are what we do.
Appreciate that Franklin did all of this when he was 79 years of age!
In Pursuing the Good Life, one of the founders of positive psychology, Christopher Peterson, offers one hundred bite-sized reflections exploring the many sides of this exciting new field. With the humor, warmth, and wisdom that has made him an award-winning teacher, Peterson takes readers on a lively tour of the sunny side of the psychological street. Christopher Peterson was Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan. One of the world’s most highly cited research psychologists and a founder of the field of positive psychology, Peterson was best-known for his studies of optimism and character strengths and their relationship to psychological and physical well-being. He was a frequent blogger for Psychology Today, where many of these short essays, including this one, first appeared.
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Biographer Walter Isaacson is planning on writing a book on Ada Lovelace, the 19th century scientist who was the daughter of poet Lord Byron. According to Fortune, Isaacson had not yet told his editor Alice Mayhew of Simon & Schuster, about his new idea.
Why is the author of books on icons such as Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs picking such an obscure subject? Fortunehas more details: “At an appearance Wednesday night in San Francisco, he said he felt he had earned the right to pick someone less iconic, and pluck her out of obscurity. ‘I want to give Ada Lovelace her moment in the sun,’ he said.”
According to Wikipedia, Lovelace was a writer who was credited with creating the first algorithm and is sometimes referred to as the World’s First Computer Programmer.
On December 6, 2011, starting at 7 PM, Jill Lepore will join hundreds of students, faculty members, and university neighbors in the Villanova Room of the Connelly Center. I'm extremely proud that Dr. Lepore represents the third speaker in The Lore Kephart '86 Distinguished Historians Lecture Series, an annual event that my father created in memory of my mother, who graduated in the top of her Villanova University class following a college career that was not initiated until she had raised her three children.
Dr. Lepore's talk is titled "Poor Jane's Almanac: The Life and Opinions of Benjamin Franklin's Sister," with the further subtitle: "an 18th century tale of two Americas." We get some hint of the fascinating content to come in this New York Times op-ed piece, which appeared on April 23, 2011. I am excerpting at length, and I hope to be forgiven:
Franklin, who’s on the $100 bill, was the youngest of 10 sons. Nowhere on any legal tender is his sister Jane, the youngest of seven daughters; she never traveled the way to wealth. He was born in 1706, she in 1712. Their father was a Boston candle-maker, scraping by. Massachusetts’ Poor Law required teaching boys to write; the mandate for girls ended at reading. Benny went to school for just two years; Jenny never went at all.
Their lives tell an 18th-century tale of two Americas. Against poverty and ignorance, Franklin prevailed; his sister did not.
At 17, he ran away from home. At 15, she married: she was probably pregnant, as were, at the time, a third of all brides. She and her brother wrote to each other all their lives: they were each other’s dearest friends. (He wrote more letters to her than to anyone.) His letters are learned, warm, funny, delightful; hers are misspelled, fretful and full of sorrow. “Nothing but troble can you her from me,” she warned. It’s extraordinary that she could write at all.
“I have such a Poor Fackulty at making Leters,” she confessed.
He would have none of it. “Is there not a little Affectation in your Apology for the Incorrectness of your Writing?” he teased. “Perhaps it is rather fishing for commendation. You write better, in my Opinion, than most American Women.” He was, sadly, right.
She had one child after another; her husband, a saddler named Edward Mecom, grew ill, and may have lost his mind, as, most certainly, did two of her sons. She struggled, and failed, to keep them out of debtors’ prison, the almshouse, asylums. She took in boarders; she sewed bonnets. She had not a moment’s rest.
And still, she thirsted for knowledge. “I Read as much as I Dare,” she confided to her brother. She once asked him for a copy of “all the Political pieces” he had ever written. “I could as easily make a collection for you of all the past parings of my nails,” he joked. He sent her what he could; she read it all. But there was no way out.
Dr. Lepore, whose work in The New Yorker always thrills me and whose mind seems to track one curiosity after the other—Charles Dickens, Planned Parenthood, the Tea Party, Stuart Little, (she's even got a co-authored novel to her name)—is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American history at Harvard University. She follows Pulitzer Prize winning James McPherson and the utterly engag
2 Comments on Jill Lepore, Ben Franklin and his Sister, and an Invitation to an Evening at Villanova University, last added: 11/15/2011
Wonderful insight into a historical person I did not know much about. We always heard about Benny in School up in Mass., but never about his other family members. Sadly, we were taught about him in a vacuum and did not know of his large family.
In the book, her portrait of Lincoln includes the words: “I looked deep into his eyes and found.” Kalman added: “I thought he would be the most incredible boyfriend. If I were married to him instead of Mary Todd Lincoln, the whole history would’ve been a whole different thing.”
Writers have always had interesting stories beyond the ones they put down to paper. Here’s the naked truth: Neatorama has outed seven well-known authors as nudist writers.
Hemingway’s cousin, Edward actually opened Britain’s oldest nudist colony during the 1930s and called it Metherell Towers. So far, there are no accountings of Ernest having visited the colony. Most of the authors don’t give an explanation for the unclothed state, but French novelist Hugo had a legitimate methodical purpose behind his nudeness.
Neatorama reports: “When Victor Hugo, the famous author of great tomes such as Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, ran into a writer’s block, he concocted a unique scheme to force himself to write: he had his servant take all of his clothes away for the day and leave his own nude self with only pen and paper, so he’d have nothing to do but sit down and write.”
It's all about the Benjamin means it's all about the money. (Benjamin Franklin appears on the $100 bill).
This translation of hip street talk was on Pointless quiz yesterday afternoon. Honest, I don't usually indulge (I am usually teaching or traveling or writing) but it was a small celebration....just sent 201 page manuscript to agent, so a small hiatus seem called for...
0 Comments on What you learn from Daytime TV (1) as of 1/1/1900
Benjamin Franklin from Scientist to Diplomatby Joan Dashpictures by Dusan PetricicFrancis Foster / FSG 2006It seems impossible to make any part of Franklin's life as dull and lifeless as it is here. But I liked the pictures.You don't tend to find newer biographies among the books available at library sales, especially about characters from history who seem to be evergreen for younger readers.
0 Comments on abandoned: A Dangerous Engine as of 2/26/2010 2:10:00 AM
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worthy reading or do things worth the writing.” So wrote the wily old Philadelphia printer, born way back in another, long-gone January. By way of the calendar adopted by the British Empire in 1752, when said gent was 46, today (the 17th, as I be typing) would be his birthday. If you’re reading this, you most certainly know that I’m referring to the remarkable, Benj. Franklin, a man of many a worthy word and deed. I didn’t like his cracking wise about John Adams’s sanity or lack thereof, but then, nobody’s seamless. The fact that today makes 304 years since yet another baby was born in the already-crowded Franklin household doesn't mean so very much, all in all. Noting birthdays is a little game, pretty much. A good excuse, as if one needed one, to have cake. An anniversary just reminds us to flick a glance in the rearview mirror, reminds us to remember an event and its meaning or the life of a person who came into the world on, perhaps, just such a day as this: snow melting outdoors, turned to filthy slop, making footing even more difficult. Folks worried, then and now, about money and about the future.
B. F.'s birthday – It's Al Capone's b-day [1899], too, and tomorrow? the 18th of January? that of Cary Grant [1904] and A. A. Milne [1882] – gives me a chance to remember writing about him and trying to envision him, watercolor-wise, as a boy, as a broad-shouldered teenager, and as a young businessman and father. What knocks me out about him these days is the fearless, systematic manner in which he took on wordsmithery. Just as he'd plunged into Boston's Mill Pond and taught himself to swim, this teenager set about reading. He inhaled what was being written, dissecting the grammar, the usage and flow of the words and reasoning that lay behind them. It was all part of his larger scheme, his plan - now here's where he really challenges me - to fully utilize the technology at hand: "A printer could publish his own ideas." [So I wrote, a few years ago in TheRemarkable Benjamin Franklin] "If they were good and well-written, people would read them, then reader and writer would have better lives."
There we have it. Thank you, Birthday Dude, for reminding me of the unchanging truth: Ideas have power. Sure, the technology has changed and is changing, blast it. And the printed page appears to be dying the death, but it's as true now as it was 304 years ago that ideas conveyed in words well-written have the power to better the lives of those who read them as well as those who write them.
Benjamin Franklin was a pioneer in the study of electricity and renowned for his many contributions throughout history. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. Benjamin Franklin is truly one of America's most influential Founding Fathers.
23 Comments on IF: Pioneer - Benjamin Franklin, last added: 1/3/2010
Nice one, Michelle! Did you know that Benjamin Franklin tried to make America's national bird the turkey instead of the bald eagle? Ha! Would we be eating eagles at Thanksgiving and protecting the turkeys?!
hi Michelle, I really like your idea of the series. And the textures in this one are great, too. Of course I remember you :) Thank you so much for visiting my blog. I'm happy you like my work. I haven't been much on Illustration Friday lately, but I'm definitely going to change it in the New Year :) Happy New Year!
Sure why wouldn't i remember you michelle. Your one of my fav IF artist. I've always enjoy your style of art. As for not being around i think i should ask you that question. LOL Hope to see more of it in the new year, have a great one.
Just found your blog Lana - Ben is one of my favorite historical figures, sort of the American DaVinci. I love the contrast in this piece between Ben and the background, nice!
Wow Michelle, Great likeness, all the way down to the crows feet. :o) Love the textured background too. Great take and fantastic illustration. You have my vote for the week's best!
Michelle - Have a wonderful new year ahead. Wow, this is a fantastic Ben Franklin. I love that you're doing historical figures. It's been wonderful seeing your work this year. All the best in 2010!
I've noticed a lot of people have been contacting me about this illustration I did a while back on Sir Isaac Newton. The first one who contacted me was actually Bob Ryan from NBC. He was going to use it for a weather site, but I think I responded too late and he had to use a stock art illustration instead. A couple of other students who came across my Sir Isaac Newton cartoon have asked me as well. I am truly grateful that they like this little cartoon and because of this I have decided to do a series of illustrations depicting influential individuals of all time. With that being said, I am going to start with Benjamin Franklin, a pioneer in the study of electricity.
Stay tuned...
0 Comments on Sir Isaac Newton: Gravity as of 1/1/1900
(Venice, Italy) Wendy Taylor, the Editor of Blogs.com from Six Apart, "a new site that helps readers find great blogs and helps blogs find new readers," asked me to contribute to their Guest Top 10 lists "where bloggers, writers, celebrities and big thinkers pick their 10 favorite blogs on a topic." They have some prestigious guests, such as Chris Andersen of The Long Tail, Marc Andreessen of Ning and Netscape, Stephen Baker of Businessweek, etc., and I readily agreed to do the Top 10 Venice Blogs. You can find my list here at Cat Bauer's Top 10 Venice Blogs:
Since there are so many blogs about Venice these days, I tried to find blogs that were pretty much up-front and without hidden agendas. (I spend way too much time fending off attacks against my blog feed and other annoyances -- right now Google reports that I have 379 URLS restricted by robots.txt, which, apparently have been attached to all of my labels. If the Internet had been around during Shakespeare's time, he probably would have had robots.txt restrictions attached to The Merchant ofVenice! )
In any event, I am happy to see most of you intrepid readers keep finding your way over to Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog. I am free to update my Top 10 list at Blogs.com, so if anyone has stumbled upon any interesting blogs that feature Venice, please drop me a line.
I suppose these shenanigans can only be expected, since Venice is teeming with celebrities these days, and competition is growing fierce. Salma Hayek just had her big second-wedding bash with husband François-Henri Pinault, and we were packed with stars -- even Bono made an appearance (that image you see is by Luigi Costantini). Other celebs to arrive in our little Magic Kingdom were actor Woody Harrelson, Ed Norton, French president Jacques Chirac, Olivier Martinez, the designer Philippe Starck, Valeria Golino, Penelope Cruz, Charlize Theron, and, of course, Francois Pinault himself, among many others. The rehearsal dinner was at the Punta Della Dogana, which Pinault owns; the wedding was at Palazzo Grassi, which Pinault owns; and there was a big bash last night at La Fenice -- which, last I heard, Pinault does not own:) To read the People article click here:
I've had a conversation with Francois Pinault, and I was impressed. It was at the opening of Palazzo Grassi, and even though he was surrounded by VIPs clamoring for his attention, he gave me his full attention, made direct eye contact with me, and had a very firm handshake. Someone pulled him away in the middle of our conversation, and he came back within moments to finish it. I found him polite and respectful -- simple human qualities that I greatly appreciate.
Not to be outdone by the French, Prince Charles himself and his wife, Camilla are scheduled to arrive here on Tuesday, up from Rome where The Prince is meeting with The Pope (wouldn't you like to be a fly on that wall?). They, too, are scheduled to visit La Fenice for a tour, and then enjoy an evening concert. In the afternoon, Prince Charles is supposed to attend a conference about our Beloved Lagoon, while Camilla heads over to the Guggenheim. I've heard some gossip through the Venetian grapevine that The Prince is thinking about "living like a Venetian" for a time. Now that is ONLY GOSSIP, not fact! Imagine how much the real estate would skyrocket in Venice if the Prince began living like a Venetian! When I lived in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, Madonna (who I think is cool) moved into the neighborhood and the prices of houses increased by about $200,000 just by her "presence!"
With all this international commotion, I think it's time for a little American anecdote, featuring Benjamin Franklin, my greatest hero, and the man who captured lightning. Having been hit by lightning myself as an infant, I have a bit of an affinity with electricity. (I would credit that image if I could figure out who shot it; I think it's someone in Texas.) Ben Franklin wore an old blue suit to sign the French Alliance, the same suit he had worn four years earlier when he had been ridiculed by the British:
On Feb. 6, 1778 he and Silas Deane went over to the French palace to sign the Treaty of Alliance with the King of France. Instead of his usual brown suit, Franklin was wearing a faded blue one, and Deane questioned why he wore old clothes to such an important ceremony. "To give it a little revenge," was the answer. "I wore this suit on the day Wedderburn abused me at Whitehall." The true depth of Franklin's feelings would never have been known if Deane had not asked.
To read more about a fascinating moment in history, head on over to Philadelphia Reflections, "The musings of a Philadelphia Physician who has served the community for nearly six decades:
Denn, I AGREE with your comments! It is an all-out war here and they are trying to destroy me! They are trying to throw me out of my apartment for La Biennale!
Do you spend a lot of time on your computer? I do. Between typing in my manuscript (the writing, and then all the editing changes), working on my blog or website, writing book reviews, doing online research, surfing, and even playing the odd computer game, it’s a LOT of time. And it’s so easy for me to get caught up in the work that I’m doing, and ignore my body.
A few years ago, I started to get numbness and tingling pain in my arms. Yep–the symptoms of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Not a good thing. That really scared me, since I need my hands to write, to type, to do art. So I decided to research the subject. I then bought a few tools which, after using them, completely took away the pain and numbness in my arms and wrists, so now I swear by them. I also decided to try to take regular breaks–something that’s very hard for me to do.
Here are the products that I use and I highly recommend to keep your body in good shape while working on the computer:
The Kinesis Advantage Keyboard. I really believe this ergonomic keyboard saved my arms and hands. I researched ergonomic keyboards thoroughly before I purchased this one; many keyboards that are advertised as ergonomic aren’t actually ergonomic. The Kinesis keyboard is. It’s more expensive than many others, but it works. It took away the pain and numbness in my arms, and allowed me to type easily, pain-free.
The one I use, Kinesis Advantage USB, may take some getting used to at first, as the keyboard is contoured, with a separate key well for each hand, which are there to reduce the strain and force you use, and position your arms in an ergonomic position, at shoulder width and with your wrists straight. Once you get used to the keyboard (I had no problems at all), it’s incredibly comfortable and easy-to-use. Any time I’m at a friend’s house and try their regular flat keyboard, I think how awkward and not-well-suited for hands it is, and wish for my Kinesis one.
The Kinesis’ keys are placed for the optimum ease of your fingers; some of the most often used keys (such as “Enter”, “Space”, “Backspace”, “Delete”) are placed in thumb keypads, allowing you to use your thumbs (which are stronger), instead of your overworked and weaker little fingers. There are a lot more ergonomic benefits to this keyboard; you can read about them here.
The Kinesis Advantage keyboard allows both the standard Qwerty layout, and the less-often used but more ergonomic Dvorak layout–AND the keyboard shows both sets of layouts. This is a nice feature; if you use Dvorak, you don’t have to just use it by memory. I decided to switch to theDvorak layout, since it’s better suited for hands. It rearranges the keys so that the ones used most frequently are located on the home row, minimizing finger movement and helping you type faster. It took me a few weeks to retrain myself to type using a Dvorak layout instead of Qwerty, but I’m happy I did.
I have been using my Kinesis keyboard for about three years, and nothing will make me turn back to a regular keyboard. Kinesis has great customer support.
The Kinesis keyboard may seem pricey at $299 US, or $329 US for the Kinesis Advantage keyboard with the Qwerty/Dvorak keyboard, but it’s well worth the money to protect and save your body. It helped me tremendously. I highly recommend it.
The Evoluent Mouse. This mouse took away the stiffness and pain in my arm, hand, and shoulder that I was getting from using the mouse so much. It positions your hand so that it’s in a neutral handshake position, and the relief is almost instant! The position prevents forearm twisting, which a regular mouse creates. The Evoluent mouse is incredibly comfortable and easy to use. I feel like my hand is actually resting when it’s on the mouse.
All five buttons are placed so that your fingers naturally rest on them, and you need only use a light pressure (but still firm enough that you won’t accidentally click on them). You can program the buttons to do what you want, or leave them at their factory settings. It also has a really easy-to-use wheel, which I use to scroll through pages.
The Evoluent mouse is USB, and has infrared tracking that responds quickly and well to your movements. You can adjust the tracking speed and mouse pointer to your own preference. It is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. They also have a left-handed vertical mouse for lefties.
There are a number of vertical mice out there, but after a lot of online research, I chose this one because it seems to be truly ergonomic, the best in its class, and has great user reviews. I have been using mine for about three years now, and I am delighted with it. I never want to use a regular mouse again! You can read more about the Evoluent mouse’s ergonomic benefits here. Evoluent has fantastic customer support, and they make frequent updates to the driver.
The Evoluent vertical mouse may seem pricey to some users at $80.00 US, but it’s worth every penny. You’ll feel the difference immediately. It saved my mouse arm from strain, pain, and numbness. I highly recommend it.
Break-time software can also help you to prevent RSI, or just keep your body from hurting too much. Some programs remind you to take a break from your computer at intervals that you set, and others go one step further and remind you to stretch, even showing you some stretches.
A great free anti-RSI program is WorkRave. It reminds you to take both micro breaks and longer breaks, and during the longer (”coffee”) breaks it shows you visuals of some stretches that you can do, and then suggests that you get up and walk away from your computer for the remainder of the 10 minutes. It also allows you to skip the break if you really need to keep working, or to shorten it. Breaks, micro-breaks, and reminders are all customizable; you can choose when and how often you want to be reminded. And you get the bonus of having a cute little sheep sitting in your system tray–along with feeling better in your body, and not injuring yourself. WorkRave is available on GNU/Linux and Windows.
You don’t often find a free anti-RSI program that shows you stretches, and for me, this is an important part of the program. I’m not likely (okay–I won’t at all) to do stretches without that visual reminder. You can scroll through the exercises, or skip one if you don’t like it. The exercises focus especially on areas of the body that can get stiff or ache, including hands, arms, shoulders, neck, and your eyes. It’s a great program, and it doesn’t cost you anything to use. So why not try it out?
For Mac users, there is a free program called Anti-RSI found here. I don’t use Mac, so I can’t tell you if it’s good or not, but the person who posted about it really likes it.
It’s also important to set up your office so that it’s ergonomic–your keyboard, your desk, your monitor…. You can get some great tips here.I hope this gives you some ideas on how to protect your body, keep yourself healthy, and prevent RSI.
1 Comments on writers, bloggers, and surfers, and ergonomics - avoiding repetitive strain injury and keeping yourself healthy, last added: 11/13/2007
The curators at the New York Public Library have put together a display in celebration of July Fourth.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 6-3 opinion that “ first sale doctrine” applies to books purchased overseas.
Biographer Walter Isaacson is planning on writing a book on Ada Lovelace, the 19th century scientist who was the daughter of poet Lord Byron. According to 
Writers have always had interesting stories beyond the ones they put down to paper. Here’s the naked truth: .jpeg?picon=3680)
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This (and the rest of the piece) is absolutely fascinating! The lecture series sounds like a wonderful way to honor your mother's memory.
Wonderful insight into a historical person I did not know much about. We always heard about Benny in School up in Mass., but never about his other family members. Sadly, we were taught about him in a vacuum and did not know of his large family.