Happy Birthday Benjie!

One of my favorite professors (i'm discovering in hindsight, that I did in fact have them), who sortof reminds me of Captain Kangaroo because of the way his voice is always full of wonder (and is always scripted - the man wrote 1.5 hour movie-monologues-soliloquies of lilting prose) was interviewed for some TV show about Ben Franklin's relationship w/ John Penn (of the Pennsylvania Penn's).

John Penn "truly thought that he was better than Franklin. Penn was noble, and Franklin was common," Zuckerman said. "To have this guy, by an accident of birth, think that he was superior to Franklin was a kind of haughtiness that tore Franklin up. I think so much of his career is a vindication of the possibilities of commoners."

What would Ben say now?

Ben Franklin's birthday and all this Penn talk remind me of something my neighbor, Damian, - The Poet of Sweetbriar Lane - said to me:

"Penn, yeah! I know that one - founded by the Penn Brothers : William and Sean!"
"Damian, the founder was Ben Franklin!"
"Yeah, the Penn Brothers! Willie, Sean, and Ben!"

Genius.

The Penn Brothers