moral perfection app?

One more on Franklin.  While some students found his daily scheme for cultivating virtue "over the top," I can not help but wonder what sort of I-phone aps he might devise if he lived today.  Here are ten to help one lose weight: LINK  Wouldn't the scientist and inventor want to put this technology to work towards solving an elevated dilemma, such as how to achieve moral perfection?

Johnson on Franklin

"One of the delights of studying American history in the 18th century is that this remarkable polymath, visionary, down-to-earth jack-of-all-trades pops up everywhere.  There were few contemporary pies into which he did not insert a self-seeking finger.  We know a lot about him because he wrote on the best of all autobiographies."  p. 134  Paul Johnson, A History of the American People

Now we have the opposite problem to the one that face us relative to Pocahontas.  Instead of knowing little about her, we know lots about him and his views of himself.  Nonetheless, we don't know everything.  His autobiography, like all examples of the genre, is crafted (perhaps composed as a page of type) to reveal his life as he wants to to be understood.  If it  is also a sort of self-help book, advise for the young American, the book and its author suggest that self-interest and public good can be coordinate goals.  However, he also models a life that is segmented: first the period of direct involvement in his business, then the period of public service. This echoed in my car as I listened to an interview with businesswoman Meg Whitman, a candidate for governor of California.  She has been CEO of e-bay but not politically active.  What, I wondered, would Franklin say about this preparation for government leadership? 

errata in a book of a life

The book is the metaphor Benjamin Franklin uses most often to consider his life.  Even as he writes his autobiography and describes his work as a printer who composes the page of type, he is also suggesting that his life can be corrected as the composer can remove the wrong letter and replace it in the tray with the correct letter.

I'm reminded of Elsa, a woman who worked in the office where I had my first post-college job.  This was in the early days of photocopying (1976-7) so we did not have a photocopy machine in our office.  Instead we had a mimeograph machine that required us to "cut" a stencil on the typewriter, attach it to the drum, and then run-off the copies by turning the drum so that ink was pressed through the stencil on to the paper.  Elsa was a master of every step in the process including correction of errors.  Usually an error in typing/cutting the stencil was corrected by first painting over the error with correction fluid that filled in the wrong holes and then recutting through the patch.  However, once we forgot the second step and ran hundreds of copies of the song sheet for a pastors' retreat with a syllable missing from one of the songs.  Elsa to the rescue!  I watched in admiration as she cut a new stencil that consisted solely of the single missing syllable and then reran the whole stack of song sheets.  When she was done, no one could have seen the repair.

Are repairs in one's life made so neatly?  When Franklin entered into a common-law marriage with Deborah Reed, did he undo the errata of having neglected their engagement?  Surely he did not erase the consequences of events and actions.  Perhaps the metaphor works better for his financial debts.

breaking archeological news

Thanks to Liza for this LINK to a Wall Street Journal notice of new finds in historic Jamestown.  Archeologists have uncovered the location of a church, perhaps the location of Pocahontas' marriage to Rolfe.  That is what catches the popular imagination.  The building is also of interest for its suggestion that the Jamestown English might have been a bit more pious than they have been given credit for. 

Marilyn Monroe and the Teaparty

Petra gives us the link to this editorial "Making Ignorance Chic" by Maureen Dowd in which she works her way from recent interest in MM to Sarah Palin by way of comments on the bifurcation of beauty and intelligence. (The StarTrib published this with a lovely photo of Monroe wearing glasses, a sure marker of female intelligence.)  I know this seems improbable.  Nonetheless, I think Dowd is on to something important about the character of contemporary political life.  She notes the Monroe made efforts to associate with intellectuals and to participate in their circles.  In contrast, she observes that Palin seems to disdain even the appearance of knowledge and clear thought. Glamour, a sort of magic spell, replaces ability.

:...the Dumb Blonde of '50s cinema had a firm grasp of on one thing: It was cool to be smart. . . . But now another famous beauty with glowing skin and a powerful current, Sarah Palin, has made ignorance fashionable."

You may not be convinced, but the editorial is worth reading and pondering.

an american conversation with petra: on education and women/girls: "Today, there were three fantastic articles in the New York Times that really spoke to me. 1) 'Making Ignorance Chic' by Maureen Dowd This a..."