1. Velda was born on a Friday the 13th. How can I not love this day? (So, you think I’m in her good graces now?)
2. Everyone knows Friday the 13th in unlucky. That pretty much ensures everyone is wrong … everyone is never right.
3. Our 13th President, Millard Fillmore, is famously known for installing the first bathtub in the White House. Which he didn’t do.
4. There’s a name for being scared of 13: Triskaidekaphobia. There’s also a name for loving this number: Triskaidekamania. That’s a lot of confusion for just a number. I mean, does anyone know what fear of the number 7 is called? 12? 5?
5. My first date with Velda was on a Friday the 13th … and I proposed on that date. Good times.
6. It’s Friday. Work is almost done. How bad can it be?
7. The Dodger’s magic number now is 5. And that has nothing to do with 13.
8. Wait. The magic number is four. Doesn’t everyone know that? (and I can prove it)
9. I’ve never seen any of the Friday the 13th movies. I mean, who would want to see them?
10. It is believed Michelangelo began work on his statue of David on September 13. Great art deserves our respect.
11. The Hollywood sign was first unveiled by the owner of the LA Times newspaper, Harry Chandler, on Friday the 13th of July, 1923. Originally the sign spelled out “Hollywoodland” and was erected to advertise a new housing development Chandler was constructing nearby.
12. Benjamin Franklin wrote it on Friday the 13th, 1789: “Everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.”
13. Remember how I proposed on my first date with Velda on a Friday the 13th? She said yes. It was a good day.
More
ThePracticalHistorian: The Completely Radional Fear of Triskaidekaphobia
Wisdom City: Number 13, My Shadow Is In Love With Your Shadow
Colgate University: Lucky 13
Taylor Swift Explains Why 13 Is Her Lucky Number
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“I am a part of everything that I have read.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
– Benjamin Franklin, painting by David Martin, 1767
“There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.”
– Will Rogers
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”
– Harry Truman
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read.”
and
“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”
– Mark Twain, in a color chromograph on December 21, 1908. Credit: Alvin Langdon Coburn
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
– Ray Bradbury
“From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.”
and
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
– Groucho Marx
“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.”
– Jacqueline Kennedy
“Reading isn’t good for a ballplayer. Not good for his eyes. If my eyes went bad even a little bit I couldn’t hit home runs. So I gave up reading.”
– Babe Ruth
“A capacity and taste for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others.”
– Abraham Lincoln, shown here reading the Bible to his son, Tad.
Photo by Anthony Berger, 1864.
More
Art of Manliness on Becoming A Lifelong Learner
How To Speed Read Like Theodore Roosevelt
The Most Beautiful Public Libraries In The World
All Things Leadership on Harry Truman
BestBooks.org
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I hate snakes. Hate’em.
The rattlesnake, a reptile found only in the Americas, was the first animal used to symbolize the colonies prior to the creation of the USA.
When the colonies began to chafe under English rule, it was observed that England was sending convicts to America. Benjamin Franklin suggested that we return the favor by sending them rattlesnakes. His thoughts were published in the Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1751:
“In the Spring of the Year, when they first creep out of their Holes, they are feeble, heavy, slow, and easily taken; and if a small Bounty were allow’d per Head, some Thousands might be collected annually, and transported to Britain. There I would propose to have them carefully distributed in St. James’s Park, in the Spring-Gardens and other Places of Pleasure about London; in the Gardens of all the Nobility and Gentry throughout the Nation; but particularly in the Gardens of the Prime Ministers, the Lords of Trade and Members of Parliament; for to them we are most particularly obliged…I would only add, That this Exporting of Felons to the Colonies, may be consider’d as a Trade, as well as in the Light of a Favour. Now all Commerce implies Returns: Justice requires them: There can be no Trade without them. And Rattle-Snakes seem the most suitable Returns for the Human Serpents sent us by our Mother Country. In this, however, as in every other Branch of Trade, she will have the Advantage of us. She will reap equal Benefits without equal Risque of the Inconveniencies and Dangers. For the RattleSnake gives Warning before he attempts his Mischief; which the Convict does not.”
I like Ben Franklin. And if his plan would have rid the country of snakes, I’m sad it was never implemented.
Known for their fierce response when disturbed, the rattlesnake became a prominent feature on early battle flags in the Revolutionary War. Rattlesnakes were native throughout the original 13 colonies.
A rattlesnake on a flag was first used as a symbol for US Marines attached to the seven ship United States Navy. General George Washington established the navy to make raids on English shipping, and the Second Continental Congress approved the creation of five companies of Marines to accompany the Navy on the first mission. Those Marines, enlisted in Philadelphia, carried drums painted yellow with a 13-rattle rattlesnake and the motto “Don’t Tread On Me.”
Continental Colonel Christopher Gadsden presented what has become known as the Gadsden flag to Commodore Esek Hopkins to serve as the personal standard of his flagship.
For a time, it was thought that the First Navy Jack was used in the Revolutionary War by the Navy, but those accounts were apparently in error. A striped jack was used in the war, but there’s no evidence that it had a snake on it. That tradition took hold, however, and the symbol is now used in today’s US Navy.
Said to be the first political cartoon, Benjamin Franklin’s “Join or Die” illustration was first published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9, 1754. It indicated N.E. for New England at the head, and then identified the colonies in order going south down the coast.
200 men from the Virginia colony fought under this flag in 1775.
Various versions of the Gadsden Flag had an apostrophe (or not), a grass field for the snake to spring from (or not), and the snake facing left or right.
The First Navy Jack is now flown on the oldest navy ship in service: currently the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.
Today, sailors fighting in the war on terror wear First Navy Jack patches on their camouflage uniforms. Other U.S. military personnel, particularly special operations personnel, have worn First Navy Jack embroidered patches as well.
More
Benjamin Franklin, AKA “An American Guesser” on the rattle-snake
Department of the Navy on the First Union Jack
Conservapedia
US Flag: The First
US Flag: The Second
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1. Velda was born on a Friday the 13th. How can I not love this day? (So, you think I’m in her good graces now?)
