02Jun11

“Bill told me to go over to that new restaurant if I wanted some good roast beef.”
“And?”
“It was a bum steer.”





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On this day in 1976, the first reports on the depletion of the ozone layer by aerosols are published. Which brings to mind the old saying: Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. Which was originally published in the Hartford Courant in 1890 and the person behind the saying was Charles D. Warner. It’s not who you think it was who said it first!!
I have always rummaged through a book that my wife gave me some years back called Poor Richard’s Almanack. I have often wondered where Benjamin Franklin got his inspiration for all the sayings in it.
I know that some of the inspirational sayings he has in it are most likely from the philosophy that had been handed down from the philosophers of the 15 and 1600’s like Roger Bacon , Augustine of Hippo, Brethius, Anselm and Rene Descartes. But all in all the sayings about practical application of conduct in certain situations is pure observation of what is going on around oneself and pure American in the thought process, for example the following quotes from this book:

A full Belly is the Mother of all Evil.

Wars bring scars.

Poverty wants some things, luxury many things, avarice all things.

Great spenders are bad lenders.

Here comes the orator, with his flood of words, and his drop of reason. (doesn’t that sound like some politician that you know?)

Three things are men most likely to be cheated in, a Horse, a Wig, and a Wife.

Good Sense is a Thing all need, few have, and none think they want.

What I usually do is read one of his sayings and try to visualize where he got the idea for it. Most of it is pure eighteenth century observation put into words and it affords me with an insight into the mind set of that day. In a way to me it is kind of refreshing looking into a world that does not exist anymore where they had no communication except word of mouth and the newpapers of the day.

I have rambled on for too long today.

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Here is another story about Abraham Lincoln past President of the United States

The artist, Frank B. Carpenter, who painted a picture of the Cabinet
assembled to hear the Emancipation Proclamation and witnes the
signature of President Lincoln to this historic document, told the
following story:
One evening the President brought a couple of friends into the
'state dining room' to see my picture. Somethin was said in the
conversation that ensued that 'reminded him of the following
circumstance: 'Judge____,' he said, 'held the strongest ideas of
rigid government and close construction that I ever met. It was
said of him on one occassion that he would hang a man for blowing
his nose in the street, but he would quash the indictment if it
failed to specify which hand he blew it with!