Saturday, October 3, 2009

While I am out of sync, you get to hear from Benjamin Franklin. That brilliant statesman/inventor says:

Friends, the taxes are, indeed, very heavy: and, if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others . . . We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our folly . . .

Of course, Benjamin Franklin might himself be appalled by today's taxes and what they go for. But still, what he says is true. I guess he was the model of discipline and integrity. That's how he got so much done and stayed out of trouble. He did stay out of trouble, didn't he?

If you love children's books, here are some older ones that sound good. I've never read them . . .yet. But I saw them listed in an article about a woman who started a company that is reprinting older children's books. Here are three: Pickle-Chiffon Pie by Jolly Roger Bradfield (hey, that sounds like something my granny would like to eat, nice author's name, too); Mr. Bear Squash-You-All-Flat (hey, that sounds like an interesting one); Mr. Pine's Purple House (he sounds way ahead of his time). Check out the website http://www.purplehousepress.com/ I think the lady who started this especially loved Mr. Pine's Purple House, don't you? I think the author of that book is Leonard Kessler. It's hard to tell as his name is printed in the grass of the purple house, it all blends together too much. Can't see any author for Mr. Bear, although there might be a little scribble down in the grass under the wee bunny in the righthand corner. What's with the grass? But the artwork for Mr. Bear looks hilarious. Can't figure out too much, but it looks as though Mr. Bear is sitting squarely on somone's nest (hence the "squash"). He is industriously flinging sticks in every direction. The wee bunny and an itty chipmunk are glued to the scene. Oh, and there's a mouse, too, whose tail seems to brush the top of the name down in the grass under the bunny in the righthand corner. All ready said all that. All I'm looking at is pictures of the book covers, little bitty ones that accompanied the newspaper article (yes, the dear newspaper). I guess I could go check the website, but that would be too easy. We can all do that individually. Sometimes I just love to use a five-syllable word. Like I did the other day: accumulation. Hold the horses, rather, Hold the press! I'm terrible with syllables, I just checked and in-di-vid-u-al-ly is SIX, even better! I would have supposed that u-al should be combined into one syllable, ual. But what do I know? This reminds me that I need to tell you about accents on syllables, which I'm equally terrible at, no, worse. What I have to tell you goes way back to my story when I was in third grade and the teacher rolled her eyes.

I'm afraid I have 8 million stories to tell you and I'm getting very far behind. Panic!

Idleless (made it up), Follyless (made it up) KEM

P.S. When I pushed PUBLISH POST, Google popped up and told me where I can go read archives of Benjamin Franklin's papers. Available free online for research, study and browsing. Yale edition. Isn't that just a tad scary?

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