Wednesday
Nov222006
if he were still in office, I'd vote him out
Wednesday, November 22, 2006 at 03:36PM
People often come up to me and say, "what can you possibly have against Ben Franklin?" And I tell them, just as I tell you now, it's because he won't let me sleep.
My first question is a tangent, let's get that out of the way. When ol' Ben tied a key to a kite, sent it out into the stormy sky and learned that lightning had electricity, did he get the snot shocked out of him? Seems like he would have. How come nobody ever writes about the three days he spent in the hospital with third degree burns in the shape of the key to the city of Philadelphia on his palms?
I digress.
Ben Frankling harnessed electricity. This was a huge thing. It allowed for the invention of the light bulb. I forget the source, but I believe it was the Smithsonian Institute, that said the light bulb was the single most life-changing invention since the wheel. Bigger than the printing press, the airplane or the internet. Why? Because it changed the length of the day. Because of the light bulb businesses can run at night, people can stay up later, our streets are bright at night. Sure, candles did that stuff, but apparently there was no comparison between the before and after. Interesting, I know. Somebody feel like googling that study and linking to it?
Ben Franklin also came up with Daylight Savings. This was a great invention for people who live on the Western half of their respective time zones. Here in the Eastern half, the daylight shows up at 5:30 am and it's dark, and I mean dark, by 5 pm. This is very lame.
The daylight we saved is the daylight I don't want.
This phenomenon has been making Ella wake up a good hour to two hours earlier than she did a couple weeks ago. I'm a musician. Before I got married I used to wake up at around 1 in the afternoon. I got married and it shifted to 11, then as the studio took off, it got closer to 10 and then 9:30. Well, now it's 8 and I want it to stop.
I realize most of you get up at 5, go to the gym, eat breakfast with your kids and are at the office by 8. But you have benefits and a retirement plan. Musicians don't have that stuff. We get free gear and the bragging rights of sleeping in. In my eyes, this makes us even.
Well, now I'm staying up til 1 or 2 am, which used to seem early, trying to write songs and get to a million points in Super Text Twist. And I'm waking up with Ella at 6:30 or 7. And I'm tired.
And it's all Ben Franklin's fault.
STT: 753,860
My first question is a tangent, let's get that out of the way. When ol' Ben tied a key to a kite, sent it out into the stormy sky and learned that lightning had electricity, did he get the snot shocked out of him? Seems like he would have. How come nobody ever writes about the three days he spent in the hospital with third degree burns in the shape of the key to the city of Philadelphia on his palms?
I digress.
Ben Frankling harnessed electricity. This was a huge thing. It allowed for the invention of the light bulb. I forget the source, but I believe it was the Smithsonian Institute, that said the light bulb was the single most life-changing invention since the wheel. Bigger than the printing press, the airplane or the internet. Why? Because it changed the length of the day. Because of the light bulb businesses can run at night, people can stay up later, our streets are bright at night. Sure, candles did that stuff, but apparently there was no comparison between the before and after. Interesting, I know. Somebody feel like googling that study and linking to it?
Ben Franklin also came up with Daylight Savings. This was a great invention for people who live on the Western half of their respective time zones. Here in the Eastern half, the daylight shows up at 5:30 am and it's dark, and I mean dark, by 5 pm. This is very lame.
The daylight we saved is the daylight I don't want.
This phenomenon has been making Ella wake up a good hour to two hours earlier than she did a couple weeks ago. I'm a musician. Before I got married I used to wake up at around 1 in the afternoon. I got married and it shifted to 11, then as the studio took off, it got closer to 10 and then 9:30. Well, now it's 8 and I want it to stop.
I realize most of you get up at 5, go to the gym, eat breakfast with your kids and are at the office by 8. But you have benefits and a retirement plan. Musicians don't have that stuff. We get free gear and the bragging rights of sleeping in. In my eyes, this makes us even.
Well, now I'm staying up til 1 or 2 am, which used to seem early, trying to write songs and get to a million points in Super Text Twist. And I'm waking up with Ella at 6:30 or 7. And I'm tired.
And it's all Ben Franklin's fault.
STT: 753,860
Reader Comments (11)
I've never really thought about it that way before...you must have been ruminating on this for quite some time. :-) Also, I don't think that ole Ben ever held any elected offices that you could vote him out of. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, but I don't know if those positions were elected or appointed. It's pretty crazy how much he did without really being elected by American citizens. There was nothing we could do to stop him (unless we sabatoged his kite!).
Stephen: I spent time looking that up, because I thought the same thing ... but he did hold some elected offices in the colonial days.
And Andrew, trust me, brother ... I'm with you. I remember loving DST as a kid because I lived very far west in the Eastern Time Zone and also at a fairly high latitude: what kid wouldn't love having daylight until nearly 10pm in the summer when you can guilt your parents into letting you stay up? But now, man, it just sucks, because it shifts sunrise around and makes it harder for me to get up early in the morning, to say nothing of the Circadian rhythm nonsense that it foists on people like me who really suffer from insomnia. Ugh.
Y'all have a good Thanksgiving. Hope to see y'all soon.
yeah he's right. Franklin never held any public office. He was a ninja though!
I've been preaching the case against ole' Mr. Franklin for years, brotha. When I was in college, we had to read his entire autobiography along with the majority of his other writings and...man... what a pompus cretin. Sure, he gave us the urinary catheter and tried (unsuccessfully) to personally rid the alphabet of six letters he thought were redundant, but come on. And yet.... Ben Franklin gave us libraries, and thus... I will think of him in love each time I check out the copious amounts of books and other goodies he has allowed me to enjoy for free. Thanks, Mr. Franklin. Thanks.
I agree. I HATE daylight savings time. Its stupid. Why do people want it lighter in the morning? It doesn't make sense. Wouldn't it be better to have it lighter at night when we could all enjoy it? Plus, I've been thrown off since we switched. stupid.
I am still trying to get used to it. And don't get me started on my 5 year old who now wakes up at the crack of dawn.
As for my 9 year old, I think he might be a musician after hearing your description. As hard as we have tried, we can't get him to go to sleep before midnight on most nights and he would sleep until noon if we let him.
Just remember that without electricity there would be no electric guitars. Without electric guitars there would be no rock music. And without rock music there would be no "The Morning."
I miss those rambling streems of endless thought.......only in person.......in the middle of the night.......in our van.........in the middle of BFE! Long live Los Normales!
Such fevered discussion on the Ben-ster- personally I think he would find it fascinating that we're talking so much about him so long after his death. (: I don't have to past-tense advantage of Mr.Taquino but I love it when you ramble as well Andy so thank ya. Happy Thanksgiving Andylanders!!!
Oh, give me a break. I just finished grad school (not exactly raking it in) and COBRAing my wife and kids for half the year. I'm extremely thankful that our 2-year-old can entertain herself for half-an-hour after she wakes up at quarter to seven now. Plus, our 6-month-old has been waking up at 5:30. But you'll be dealing with all that fun stuff again soon enough, right? :)
I will agree that this dark-at-5 pm stuff isn't wonderful. But that's an argument for KEEPING daylight savings time, not abolishing it. Remember, we're now back on STANDARD time.
Wasn't there a Mythbusters about Ben Franklin and his kite?
Although it requires IE, MSN is streaming Arrested Development, beginning with the first five episodes.
http://arresteddevelopment.msn.com/