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Comments:
Laura - 2004-12-08 12:39:59 ...of comments. Funny that a post about the ingenious Ben F ends up being so clunky in the comments section.* * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2004-12-08 13:49:04 When Technology figures out how to put animated gifs on money we'll have Ben jigging and hornpiping on our finifs, hopefully sans Babes.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-12-08 13:54:50 (reads with horror)...animated gifs on money? Ugh. That's all we need. Well, ultimately I think it's OK to present Ben in shiny 21st-century terms so as to lure otherwise uninterested kids into the history. They can refine their mental picture of Ben later in life.* * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2004-12-08 13:59:50 ...and of course it's the fifty which presents Mister Franklin...* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-12-08 14:08:58 Well, fifties or twenties of tens or what have you are all falling fast in value. A story in today's New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" (not online yet) discusses the effects of the rising national debt and says "Russia just announced that its central bank might change some of its dollar reserves into euros, and rumors persist that Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern oil producers will soon begin to set oil prices in euros, a move that would undermine the dollar's privileged status." * * * * * * * * * * * * tricia - 2004-12-08 14:32:50 I saw part of that show on Sunday night. He's actually spending time in the 21st century, as if he traveled through time or something. It was a strange 20 minutes that I saw. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-12-08 14:35:35 Oh, really? That's interesting, and explains the photo with the modern women. Why would they bring him into this century? Tricia, may I ask, what else happened in that segment?* * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2004-12-08 14:40:49 Perhaps if the mint puts YMCA Elmo on the dollar we'll be saved.* * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2004-12-08 15:15:10 A Ford Mustang commercial features a virtual Steve McQueen. Makes me shudder. Ford should do a series with people who died of lung cancer like McQueen did. Yul Brenner, Dan Rowan, Gary Cooper, Ann Miller, Rosemary Clooney, Lon Chaney, Nat King Cole, to name a few. Larry King and I can do voice-overs.* * * * * * * * * * * * brett - 2004-12-08 15:16:08 i remember a great commercial they had a few years ago, late at night, that featured ben sitting at a desk with a feather quill, and he turns to the camera and says something like "It's your patriotic right....to be mobile!" -and then the camera pulls back and your realize he's sitting on a 'rascal' (one of those motorized wheelchair/carts), and begins zipping around the room. I loved that. It made me wish my legs didn't work so I could buy one.* * * * * * * * * * * * Jimbo - 2004-12-08 15:45:41Don't worry Brett. Your time will come sooner than you think.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-12-08 15:55:08 Jimbo, that seems like an odd comment. I hope you are friends with Brett and are joking with him here. At any rate, I would have loved to have seen that commercial, Brett. You have to wonder how the creator got the idea & pitched it to his or her boss. The first advertising reference that comes to my mind is the ubiquitous use of presidents, Lincoln and Washington especially, as well as Franklin, in newspaper car ads. Every time some federal holiday rolls around, there they are again, plastered all over some ad. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura, clarifying - 2004-12-08 16:04:01 Jimbo, you doubtless did not intend it as such, but in the context-free world of email, I (mis)read that comment as almost vaguely threatening, which I know was not your intent. Hope not, anyways. At any rate. Please do continue to add your comments; I'd like to read them.* * * * * * * * * * * * Jimbo - 2004-12-08 16:04:29 I work with handicaped & elderly. It will happen to most of us. Truth isn't fun. Nothing personal against Brett. Wishing for a motorized scooter doesn't seem very fun.* * * * * * * * * * * * Tony Soprano - 2004-12-08 16:11:34 I hope Brett has a long, healthy, mobile life.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-12-08 16:25:37 Thanks Jimbo. I knew it was some misunderstanding of mine. Thanks for the explanation. Incidentally, the Waterloo Area Farm Museum had an elaborate, big, clunky, rattan and wood late 19th/early 20th-century wheelchair in the attic. When I read a history of the farm I'd bought in the gift shop, I learned about Dan Realy, both of whose legs were simultaneously broken by a horse one day. I can only imagine the agony he went through back then.* * * * * * * * * * * * Johnny Thunders - 2004-12-08 16:29:18 Morphine was readily available then. Unlike now where doctors are afraid to prescribe it. By the way, another Ypsi trivia question. What was the purpose of the Octogon shaped houses on River, near Michigan Ave.?* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-12-08 16:33:19 So was opium and cocaine, if I remember right. The Octagon house? I've seen one on River. I dimly remember reading about 2 in ypsi--the existing one and another one, now destroyed, that stood in the DPW yard and was the home of an extremely eccentric hermit...a couple of Googles later, I'll see if I can refine that nebulous info. As to the *purpose* of making an 8-sided house, I'm clueless.* * * * * * * * * * * * Anna - 2004-12-08 17:19:21 An old house in Dobbs Ferry, NY is octagonal because the owner had an unusual octagonally-shaped desk, and decided to build the library around it, and then the house around the library.* * * * * * * * * * * * brett - 2004-12-08 17:33:33 i'm sure "my time" will come very soon, thanks to my lack of health insurance. And by the way, in case my own sarcasm wasn't clear, I wouldn't have bought the rascal even if i needed it because the commercial was so badly done. Geez. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-12-08 17:41:09Anna: Wow. Talk about the tail wagging the dog. Brett: I was astonished to learn the other day, from my audio IV drip of all-day NPR, that one in 8 Americans has no health insurance. That is shocking. * * * * * * * * * * * * brett - 2004-12-08 17:45:46 cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than the U.S., since they actually to provide health care to their citizens. Of course, the health care issue was pushed to the periphery of the presidential debate simply because neither party gives a shit. We live in a "third world" nation, if you look at the standard of living most of us have.* * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2004-12-08 19:13:42I have lots of (theraputic, not recreational) morphine readily prescribed. Easy to get a prescription when the docs think you haven't time for addiction.* * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2004-12-08 19:18:58 I have lots of (theraputic, not recreational) morphine readily prescribed. Easy to get a prescription when the docs think you haven't time for addiction.* * * * * * * * * * * * raymond - 2004-12-08 19:26:56 I have lots of (theraputic, not recreational) morphine readily prescribed. Easy to get a prescription when the docs think you haven't time for addiction.* * * * * * * * * * * * wtf? - 2004-12-08 19:28:25 dialup, reboot, reconnect, cripes* * * * * * * * * * * * brett - 2004-12-08 20:47:59 as a detective i'm sure you know this, raymond, but morphine was one of sherlock holmes' drugs of choice. on a more serious note, i just had a discussion with my spouse who convinced me i was being distastefully sarcastic and crude for a forum involving only text communication. For that reason, i would like to honestly apologize to jimbo or anyone else who felt my observation about the benjamin franklin commercial was insensitive. It was. I am. It's been a bad year, and like most years it's capped off by christmas and my birthday, so i'm in a fairly foul mood as of late and probably running a little loose and free with my mouth. Sorry.* * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-12-08 22:14:40Cuba has a....? Wow. An amazing statistic. Thanks Brett. Your unnecessary apology is graceful and kind, but I think all is OK. I am sorry to read you had a bad year. * * * * * * * * * * * * Laura - 2004-12-08 22:43:57 Raymond: sorry about the multiple comments glitch. It's not your fault. Ypsidixit, the blog, creaks along about as well as that jalopy in Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road, a book I reread about once a year whenever I get mopey that I don't have a Jacuzzi.* * * * * * * * * * * * add your comment: |