Happy birthday, Ben Franklin!

January 17, 2008

Today is the 302nd anniversary of the birth of Ben Franklin (1706-1790).

At one time, this was the only day of the year on which a tornado had not been recorded in the U.S. Does anyone know: Is that still so?

Happy birthday, Ben. And, happy Ben’s birthday, America. We were lucky to have him.

Ben Franklin quote about history

Image and Quicktime Movie from Franklin Institute

1 Comment | Ben Franklin, Heroes, History | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Diagramming the Preamble

January 17, 2008

Beautiful, indeed!

I’ve often recommended students diagram the Preamble to the Constitution, to better understand the source of authority in our government (“We, the People”).

Betsy (I have no surname) sent me a link to this:

Preamble to the Constitution as your English teacher wishes you would have diagrammed it. JPEG version

Preamble to the Constitution as your English teacher wishes you would have diagrammed it.

Sentence diagram of the Preamble to the Constitution

Sentence diagram of the Preamble to the Constitution. GIF version

 

The work is done at a the site of Capital Community College, their “Guide to Grammar and Writing.”

Here’s the Preamble as it usually appears:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I wonder: Has anyone diagrammed the Mayflower Compact?

Tip of the old scrub brush to Betsy at The Reality Based News Feed, and to Boing Boing.

5 Comments | Historic documents, History, History images, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

400,000

January 17, 2008

Earlier than I expected, in the wee hours of this morning this blog slipped over 400,000 clicks, 400,000 page views. 

To the core fans of the site:  Thank you.  To random visitors:  Thank you, and come back.

The spam-to-comment ratio is horrendous, but WordPress’s Akismet makes that very manageable.  The comment to visit rate is too low, too, but I suppose that means I’m avoiding some of the needless controveries that build comment traffic. 

Gee, I wish I had a nickle for every visit . . .

2 Comments | Administrivia | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell