Well, there's always an excuse not to write, isn't there?

On or about December 1, 2008, I finally decided what the organizing principle of this blog would be, but it has taken me almost two months to get over my fear of actually being read. But here it is. Done. A handful of words on the page. No more blog title changes, no more fiddling with the artwork. Out, out, out into the webby world it goes....

For personal and professional reasons, I am interested in things. Objects. Artifacts. Junk. Stuff. Material Culture. Getting the goods, too. Shopping. Consumption. Exchange. Creating, making, inventing. All this is of interest to me. So, the organizing principle of this blog will be along those lines. 

I've been thinking about two posts in particular that I want to make soon, but I thought it would be fun to start off with a simple observation: My hat--It's not too far removed from Aretha's hat. I mean, it is not anywhere near as wonderful as Aretha's, but it does say (as hers does): I'm not afraid of giant adornments affixed near my temple. Deal with it.

I adored Aretha's hat. It was absolutely marvelous. Wouldn't you know that the very first thing  my son said to me when I picked him up from school and asked him about his day, and whether he saw the inauguration (I knew they were showing it to the kids), and what he thought--the very first words out of his mouth were:

"Did you see that woman singing the President's song? She had on THE MOST RIDICULOUS HAT!!!" 

 [Sigh.] 

He loves me so much now that sometimes he just has to scream (according to him, those are his words, almost verbatim)--but the clock is ticking, and soon he's going to realize that, even though he loves me, he doesn't want to be seen with me.

Anyhow, the title of the blog comes from Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard, who is quoting Father Abraham, who is in turn quoting Poor Richard. In the almanac of 1758 ("Poor Richard Improved") Franklin imagines that Richard overheard Father Abraham tell some other colonists:

"Handle your Tools without Mittens; remember that the Cat in Gloves catches no Mice, as Poor Richard says. ’Tis true there is much to be done, and perhaps you are weak handed, but stick to it steadily, and you will see great Effects, for constant Dropping wears away Stones, and by Diligence and Patience the Mouse ate in two the Cable; and little Strokes fell great Oaks,as Poor Richard says in his Almanack, the Year I cannot just now remember."

The above almanac and Franklin's papers can be viewed and searched online at franklinpapers.org, and I encourage everyone to play around in that site: it's a bit clunky to navigate, but it is really quite fun to read Franklin's own words.

[Trivial note: one day I wanted to see what Franklin said about spending, so I keyword searched for "spent" or "spend" or some such thing, and to my surprise--although, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised--I pulled up lots and lots and lots of hits of him referring to spending time, but not money. Ah well, yes. "Remember that Time is Money." as Franklin wrote in his "Advice to Young Tradesmen." (1748) That, too, it a particularly relevant one these days, with its advice re: money, credit, salaries, spending, and its harping on INDUSTRY AND FRUGALITY. Yipes!]