Franklin My Dear...

To the Bobst library for the Benjamin Franklin exhibition at New York University. This seemed a particularly relevant use of our afternoon for three reasons.

1. It's Presidents Day and everyone thinks Franklin was one. Not quite but he hung out with them.

2. I voiced a documentary on NYU last year and had to pronounce the name Ernst Bobst more times than I would care to mention (158 for the record. Probably).

3. We watched 'National Treasure' over the weekend and Franklin plays a crucial part (NB: He doesn't technically play any part but his achievements are an integral part of the plot. The film is predictably dire but is enjoyable hokum nonetheless. I see it as a dry run for 'The Da Vinci Code' - which I'm sure will be far worse - and think Anthony Lane's New Yorker review of the movie is still spot on: "it's at its best when it's at its worst").

The exhibition illustrates what an incredible guy Franklin was (I'm certain Norman Mailer summed him up just like that in a single sentence a few decades ago...) and as it runs until New Year's Eve (is that meaningful Franklin fans?) you won't have any excuses to miss out. What struck me about the good doctor was that he wrote about absolutely anything and everything on his mind: he was equally comfortable telling us about electricity but also how to get the best out of your chimney. I think we can safely say that Franklin inspired bloggers everywhere as they work along similar lines. And - ahem - as you know, there's no smoke without fire for I learnt how one of America's greatest ever citizens was not immediately loved by his own people; indeed, it was your French friends who took to him far quicker. In my mind, this makes Franklin an early forerunner to Woody Allen - he too has never received much love over here whereas in France they go crazy for him. I always wondered if this was an urban myth but lived there when 'Deconstructing Harry' was released and the people treated it like the rest of the world greets a new Spielberg picture. Well, apart from 'Always', 'Hook' and 'Amistad' but you get the point.

Back to Ben and his career was full of blockbuster hits too: he was a Founding Father who signed the Declaration of Independence, shaped the American Revolution despite never holding elective office, was an early proponent of colonial unity and historians hail him as the "First American". Oh, and in his spare time convinced Parliament to repeal the hated Stamp Act and invented the (Franklin) stove, medical catheter, lightning rod, swimfins, glass harmonica and bifocals. Phew, as we used to say. He must have come up with more famous quotes than anyone bar Shakespeare ("Time is money" and "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes" are just two of his greatest hits) but, above all, he wanted to be known as a printer so let's just throw in newspapers and magazines to his list of achievements for good measure. Speaking of reading, it's said that his autobiography is the most entertaining one ever written so I'm planning to check that out, like, ASAP. I'm almost certain it will cost far less than $100...the monetary value his face continues to adorn. All about the Benjamins? You’d better believe it.

PS My third posting in a week which has proved to be ahead of the curve. The day after I wrote this, the New York Times's Metro section published an article on the Franklin exhibition on its front page. If you see a bump in attendance, well, I'm happy to share the increase in popularity with the Times...