Word: almanacs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Franklin created a similar character in Poor Richard Saunders, the pseudonym he used when he began to publish an annual almanac. The beauty of inventing a fictional author was that he could poke fun at himself by admitting, only half in jest, that money was his main motivation. "I might in this place attempt to gain thy favor by declaring that I write almanacks with no other view than that of the public good; but in this I should not be sincere," Poor Richard began his first preface. "The plain truth of the matter is, I am excessive poor...
...first edition, Poor Richard predicts "the inexorable death" of his rival almanac writer Titan Leeds, giving the exact day and hour. It was a prank borrowed from Jonathan Swift. Leeds fell into the trap, and in his own almanac for 1734 (written after the date of his predicted death) called Franklin a "conceited scribbler" who had "manifested himself a fool and a liar." Poor Richard responded that all of these defamatory protestations indicated that the real Leeds must indeed be dead and his new almanac a hoax by someone else. "Mr. Leeds was too well bred...
...father who diapers his daughter at the age of 12 has a geranium in his cranium"), a heartfelt respect for her readers and a willingness to change her mind, she earned an ardent following of 90 million readers. Dubbed the country's most influential woman by a World Almanac poll in 1978, Lederer cherished her ability to help and read several hundred letters a day while soaking in the bathtub. Offers to buy rights to the Ann Landers name were declined. "When I go," she said, "the column goes with me." --By Harriet Barovick...
...didn’t see this disastrous loss coming at all—but maybe that’s because I hadn’t checked my Poor Richard’s Almanac...
...study of Ben Franklin, whose exploits are well beaten into the heads of most third graders. Franklin is an American cliché, the symbol of the self-made man with a broad array of talents: inventor (of the Franklin stove, bifocals), writer (of Poor Richard’s Almanac and editor of the Declaration of Independence), businessman (printer) and politician (beginning as colonial envoy to Britain followed by a lengthy stint as the elder member of the Constitutional Convention...