For the first time in the history of our country the majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years.
Jimmy Carter
"At ease," she said
"Maneuvers begin
When you get
Those whiskers
Off your chin"
Burma Shave
1942
I am willing to love all mankind, except an American.--Samuel Johnson
Benjamin Franklin in popular culture Part 1 or 2
Franklin was placed on the first U.S. postage stamp which was issued in 1847. He has been on numerous other stamps, as well as the half dollar minted 1948-63, and the commemorative dollars (showing a young "scientist" and old "founding father") minted on his tercentennial. The reverses of the latter pieces are respectively based on the "Join or Die" cartoon he drew and the continental dollar, which he supposedly designed. He also appears on the $100 bill, which is popularly called a "benjamin."
A fictionalized but somewhat accurate version of Franklin appears as a main character in the stage musical 1776. The film version of 1776 features Howard da Silva, who originated the role of Franklin on Broadway.
The city of Philadelphia contains around 5,000 likenesses of Franklin—half of which are located on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Additionally, a local actor portrays Franklin in full costume, charging $1,776 for each appearance.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, the government claims that Franklin was the first fireman. In the novel, firemen do not put out fires, but instead start them in order to burn books.
The popular television show MythBusters (Discovery channel) tested Franklin's famous kite experiment with electricity.
A young Franklin appears in Neal Stephenson's novel of 17th century science and alchemy, Quicksilver.
Walt Disney's cartoon Ben and Me (1953), based on the book by Robert Lawson, counterfactually explains to children that Franklin's achievements were actually the ideas of a mouse named Amos.
Franklin surprisingly appears as a character in Tony Hawk's Underground 2, a skateboarding video game. Players encounter Franklin in his hometown of Boston and are able to play as him thereafter.
Proud Destiny by Lion Feuchtwanger, a novel mainly about Pierre Beaumarchais and Franklin beginning in 1776's Paris.
Franklin appears in the LucasArts Entertainment Company Game Day of the Tentacle.
Franklin is portrayed in a central role in the PBS cartoon Liberty's Kids voiced by Walter Cronkite.
The 2004 movie, National Treasure, has the main characters trying to collect clues left by Franklin to discover a treasure that he supposedly hid. The character played by Nicolas Cage was named "Benjamin Franklin Gates", in following with the Gates family tradition to name sons after Franklin and his contemporaries.
The Franklin Templeton Investments firm (originally Franklin Distributors, Inc.) was named in honor of Franklin and uses his portrait in their logo.
Franklin was summoned via witchcraft into the twentieth century for a 2-part episode on the TV show Bewitched.
The children's novel, Qwerty Stevens: Stuck in Time with Benjamin Franklin, has the main characters using their time machine to bring Franklin into modern times and then to travel back with him to 1776.
Note: this riddle must be done in your head and not using pencil and paper.
Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30. Now add another 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000. Now add 10.
What is the total?
Better bend than break.
Scottish Proverb
He that scatters Thorns, let him not go barefoot.
1736
Old men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.
