Dark Bilious Vapors

But how could I deny that I possess these hands and this body, and withal escape being classed with persons in a state of insanity, whose brains are so disordered and clouded by dark bilious vapors....
--Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy: Meditation I

Home » Archives » January 2006 » Karen beats me to it....

[« Thought for the Day:] [Just in case you don't have enough nightmares.... »]

01/17/2006: Karen beats me to it....


But that was true here too, lots of the time. She has kids, so she's up earlier than me most days.

But over at Peripetia she notes that today is the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin. In his honor, go spend a $100 bill.

:-)

Follow the link to Karen's post for a couple links to Frankliniana. As for myself, well... it's not historical (not completely, anyway), but Franklin is probably my favorite character in the musical comedy 1776! (which I think is a highly underrated show). My favorite snippet of dialogue from that show comes when the Continental Congress has authorized an investigation of conditions in General Washington's Army, in camp in New Jersey; apparently the soldiers (as soldiers are wont to do) were spending time drinking to excess and carousing with women of negotiable virtue. During the debate leading up to the authorization for the investigation, Ben Franklin has been sleeping (apparently Franklin, who was, after all, 70 years old in 1776, did do that frequently). After the debate and vote authorizing the investigation, John Adams is selected to chair the inquiry, and permitted to select his assistants. He walks towards the snoozing Franklin, stamps his walking stick on the floor, and bellows:

ADAMS: Come on, Franklin, you're going to New Jersey!
FRANKLIN: [
waking with a start] Like hell I am! For what?
ADAMS: For the drinking and wenching.
FRANKLIN: [
springing out of his chair and walking briskly offstage] Well, why didn't you say so? Come on....
Ah, would that we had such sprightly national leadership nowadays....

Len on 01.17.06 @ 07:53 AM CST



[ | ]

January 2006
SMTWTFS
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031    



Home
Archives
Archives of Blogger site
Archives: May '04-Feb '05
Archives: Feb-March '05



RSS 1.0 FEED
Powered by gm-rss

Len's sidebar:
About Len (The uncondensed version)
Memorial to a dear friend
Frederick W. Benteen
The Web of Leonards
The St. Louis Cardinals
The Memphis Redbirds
The St. Louis Browns
The Birdwatch
Hey! Spring of Trivia Blog
BlogMemphis (The Commercial Appeal's listing of Memphis blogs)
The Guide to Life, the Universe, and Everything
George Dubya Bush Blows
asshat.org (be sure to refresh your window for more "wit and wisdom" from Our Beloved Leader)
Taking the Fight to Karl
Main and Central (blog by, for and about veterans and their issues)
LordCo Centre
Kraftwerk: Chicago, 6/4/2005
My Chicago: Part One
My Chicago, Part Two
Millennium Park
Miscellaneous Chicago
Busch Stadium Tour and BoSox/Cards Game: 6/6/2005
St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum
Len's All-Busch Stadium Team (and the voting results)

Len's extended blogroll:

Brock's Sidebar:
About Brock
The Agitator
Agoraphilia
apostropher
Armchair Capitalists
Battlepanda
Boing Boing
Brad DeLong
Crooked Timber
The Decembrist
Dispatches from the Culture Wars
Fafblog
Flypaper Theory
Heretical Ideas
John and Belle Have a Blog
Jon Rowe
Lawyers, Guns, and Money
Leiter Reports
LGF Watch
Literal Minded
Majikthise
Marginal Revolution
Matthew Yglesias
Oliver Willis
Orin Kerr
Pandagon
Pharyngula
Political Animal
The Poor Man
Signifying Nothing
Unfogged
Unqualified Offerings

Moonbat Icon

Our Alumni Club:
(of whom we're very proud)
Karen McLauchlan, now blogging at:
Peripetia

The Rocky Top Brigade:



A New Memphis Mafia


The Old Memphis Mafia

The liberal alternative to Drudge.

Get Firefox!

Explorer Destroyer





Take the MIT Weblog Survey


Heard the Word of Blog?


Len supports:
Operation Yellow Elephant:


"Because ranting is safer than enlisting"
Operation Yellow Elephant Blog

The Rebel Alliance of Yankee Haters
Blue Squadron (NL)
Babalu (Marlins)
Leaning Toward the Dark Side (Mets)
Ramblings' Journal (Cubs)
Mediocre Fred (Brewers)
Len Cleavelin (Cardinals)
Red Squadron (AL)
Obscurorama (Red Sox)
Frinklin Speaks (Mariners)
Steve Silver (Twins)
Steve the Llama Butcher (Red Sox)
Rob the Llama Butcher (Rangers)
MoatesArt (Red Sox)
Rammer (Tigers)
JawsBlog (Indians)
Ubi Libertas (Blue Jays)
Oldsmoblogger (Indians)
Mass Backwards (Red Sox)
Unassigned
Industrial Blog
Cry Freedom





Blogrings/Blog indexes/Blog search:
« ? Verbosity # »


Listed on Blogwise
Blogarama - The Blog Directory
Popdex
Popdex Citations
Technorati
Blog Search Engine



Greymatter Forums Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com
template by linear