Sit Beside Benjamin Franklin in the USA

 The statue is in the sculpture garden in Phildelphia, USA.

Benjamin Franklin supposedly said, a place for everything and everything in its place.

He also invented bifocals. And the lightning conductor. He signed the declaration of independence and wrote some of it.

Useful Websites

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American Money Museums - and do you know which president is on which bill?

Photos from Wikipedia, in public domain.

USA
I visited a banknotes and coin museum in Washington DC in the USA. I never really thought about the fact that American's first President Washington, is on the one dollar bill.
Thomas Jefferson, third President, is on the $2 note.
Lincoln, the 16th President is on the $5 dollar bill.
$20 Andrew Jackson.
$50 Ulysses Grant.

The $100 note has Benjamin Franklin, who said a place for everything and everything in its place. (Also attributed to the happily named Samuel Smiles and Britain's Mrs Beeton.)

Handy pictures of the notes and presidents on this website:
https://www.leftovercurrency.com/exchange/us-dollars/current-us-dollar-banknotes/

The USA has at least half a dozen money museums:
Atlanta
Chicago
Cleveland
Denver
Fort Worth
Kansas

Washington DC Free tour. Very interesting account of various presidents and VIPs shown on coins and notes.
https://www.moneyfactory.gov/washingtondctours.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Numismatic_museums_in_the_United_States

TO VISIT THE USA
visittheusa.co.uk

Author
 Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Poems About Holidays and Advice from Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia and London

Benjamin Franklin

Problem
What to do on holiday? Write poems about problems and solutions.

Answer
Today's poem from me to you is a poem on packing.
http://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/packing-list-poem.html
Read on - I'll give you this link again at the end.

Story
I was in Philadelphia, USA, on a press trip. A fellow travel writer, an American, said he was going on local radio to talk about the destination. I said, "Ask them if they'd like an English writer with an English accent to talk about the destination, museums, shops, restaurants, history and so on. I'll speak after you, refer back to what you said, and cover anything you haven't already covered. He was happy to do that and said they agreed. So I told everybody at home, and the tourist board, that I would be on American radio.

I sat next to him as he talked, waiting for my turn.

At the end he passed me a note:
"She says I've covered everything. You are not needed."

I was disappointed and embarrassed. I quickly wrote back:

"I have a poem on Philadelphia's attractions. Would she like that? She hasn't had that! That's new!"

He told her, and grinned at me, and whispered, "Yes - but have you got a poem?"

I didn't have a poem, but I was prepared to make it up as I went along. I started writing rhyming couplets immediately.

Unfortunately I did not get a recording of what I said. But I can reconstruct the gist of my poem. We had just visited the big exhibition on Benjamin Franklin. I started with something like this:

"I'm a Brit in America, what must I see?
Lots of things which fascinate me
A historic city, where should tourists being?
At the exhibition of Benjamin Franklin!

"He said 'early to bed and early to rise'
Makes shops wealthy, tourists happy and wise
As Philadelphia's buildings grew higher and higher
He invented lighting conductors to prevent fires ..."

By the time she had checked my name again, and announced me, I had two verses.

I added something to appeal to listeners:

"The building I'm in is made safer by him
The building you're in is made safer by him
People worldwide are indebted to him
Don't you want to know more about Benjamin Franklin?"

Whilst I was reading them out, I touched my reading glasses and thought of another verse.

"He invented bifocals, I don't know how
I'm indebted to him, I'm using them now
He did so much for you and me
Come to Philadelphia - so much new to see!"

At the end, she asked me about myself, travel writer, author of ten books, lived in the USA in Rockville Maryland, then what I had seen and liked in Philadelphia, such as the Hop on and Hop off bus and the trip down the river on the Duck tour on the converted amphibian WWII army vehicle and the USA - Elvis museums, homes of famous Americans such as poet Edgar Allan Poe.

We now have a Benjamin Franklin Museum in London, England.

Tips
Write a poem, at least a title and one couplet, each day of your trip and each destination.

Websites
http://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/packing-list-poem (My poem on packing)
http://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/benjamin-franklin-poem-by-angela (view the Benjamin Franklin poem without comments in the middle, plus a verse about the UK museum.)
https://www.visittheusa.com
http://www.visitphilly.com
http://www.visitphilly.com/museums-attractions/philadelphia/benjamin-franklin-museum/ (USA museum in Philadelphia)
http://www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org/site/sections/ (Benjamin Franklin house in London, England)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Please share links to my posts on travel and poetry.

What Travelling Teaches Us About Language And Time

Problem
Different countries view time in different ways. In New York and when checking in at the gate to catch a plane, you must arrive ten minutes in advance, ideally half an hour in advance. No matter what your excuse, the plane will go without you.

Answers
You have to be aware of local culture. The Spanish 'mañana' attitude applies in Spain and other hot countries. Malaysia and many Mediterranean, Arabic or tropical countries, a relaxed view of time is the norm.

In Singapore I try to arrive half an hour to an hour before the open doors time, when networking starts, before what should be the not time start to the welcome speech to the meeting.

However, often I am amounts the first three to arrive, the first not counting those who open the door. Although I am late I am the first visitor to arrive.

What do different cultures think and say about time and language?

SAYINGS ABOUT LANGUAGE
It is said that
1 The English speak two languages, English and louder English.
2 A picture is worth a thousand words.
3 Actions speak louder than words.
England and America are two countries separated by a common language.
(George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, wrote Pygmalion in 1913, awarded the Nobel prize 1925.)

SAYINGS ABOUT TIME
USA
New Yorkers are punctual.
1 Time and tide wait for no man.
2 Time is money.
(Benjamin Franklin.)
3 Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. You may delay, but time will not. Lost time is never found again. (Benjamin Franklin.)

AFRICA
The clock did not invent man.
So little time, so much to do.
(Cecil Rhodes.)

CHINESE SAYING
The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is today.

LATIN AND THE ROMANS
The Romans used to say:
3 Carpe Diem. (Seize the day.)
Tempus Fugit. (Time flies. Full version is: Tempus fugue - Time flies and never returns)

GERMAN
Eternity was made to give some of us a chance to learn German.
Mark Twain

What problems have you had learning German?

INDIA
Time is free.

ITALY
He who goes slowly goes safely and goes far.

SPAIN
The 'mañana culture. Spaniards say:
Those who rush arrive first at the grave.
4 Tomorrow is the busiest day of the week.


UK
5 Better late than never but better never late.

More haste, less speed.

Measure twice; cut once. (Saying used by tailors, cobblers and carpenters.)

Time heals all wounds.

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Brutus in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.

Time and tide wait for no man.
Geoffrey Chaucer.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

6 If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds worth of run
Why then the whole wide world is yours
And what is more, you'll be a man, my son.
Rudyard Kipling


Tips
More amusing foreign phrases from:
http://www.fluentu.com/french/blog/french-proverbs/?lang=en


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Please share my posts.

Benjamin Franklin House in London

In Philadelphia, USA, I visited an exhibition on Benjamin Franklin who invented the lighting conductor and bifocals. He is the man I quote continually.

His face is familiar. Why? probably because you see him on American dollar notes. He was the founding father of the United States of America and lived in London from 1757 to 1775.

In London you can visit the Benjamin Franklin House. If you are planning a visit, or if you are not planning a visit anywhere except the internet, look at the website and watch a brief video about Benjamin's scientific studies on subjects such as The Gulf Stream.

I was reminded about the Benjamin Franklin House by a leaflet Around London, a little map of Inspiration, a free map from the National Trust, which lists 29 attractions in London.
ww.nationaltrust.org.uk
National Trust membership call 0344 800 1895

Benjamin Franklin House
Tel 020 7925 1405
Nearest station Charing Cross and Embankment
www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org

Time quotations

Today the clocks went back.

Quotations on time listed in alphabetical order:

A stitch in time saves nine.

A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday
Bible

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
Kipling poem If

Give me one minute more
Song
Give me five minutes more
Song by Frank Sinatra

Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock
(Nursery rhyme)

How did it get so late so soon ...
Dr Seuss

Now is the hour
(Song)

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone
Poem Funeral Blues by W H Auden

There is a tide in the affairs of men which if taken at the flood leads on to victory.
William Shakespeare 1564-1616

Time and tide wait for no man.

Time heals all wounds.

Time is everything. Five minutes makes the difference between victory and defeat. (Horatio Nelson, 1758-1805), won the Battle of Trafalgar but died on his ship the Victory. Also said England expects every man to do his duty.)

Time is money.
Benjamin Franklin

Time you old gypsy man, will you not stay, put up your caravan, just for one day.
Ralph Hodgson (9 September 1871 – 3 November 1962 - see article in Wikipedia.)

A modern Greek proverb, 'Man raises but time weighs', is inscribed in the USA on the Thomas Jefferson building, Library of Congress, Washington DC.

Quotations are inscribed above eye level on a frieze around the outside of Bluewater giant shopping mall in the UK.

For more quotations online see brainy quote

GREENWICH MEAN TIME VISIT, LONDON

Greenwich Park, Greenwich, London, SE10 9NF

Find the time line and be photograph astride it.

In Belgium there is a sculpture of time.

Quotations from losers and winners about travel and life

QUOTATIONS For travel and life

A correspondent travelling in my direction sent me a quotation which he asked me to identify, a rhyme about roaming. It included the words 'never found a home'.

You don't have to find a home. You can make a home.

You only have to put the words into Google to instantly locate the source, a song written by Johnny Cash.

It is a pity that life's losers write lyrics about losing, even when they become famous. Like one of my favourite singer-songwriters, Amy Winehouse. Her most famous song, won't go to Rehab, no, no, no, struck me as having a negative message when I first saw her singing it. I loved her voice, though not her message. Her message was doing her no good. Then she died.

I prefer to remember and run my life by quotations from Benjamin Franklin:
'Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.'

Benjamin contributed more to society than sayings. He was a politician. He gave a good message and lived a useful life which gave benefits to generations, including me and you. He invented the lighting conductor and bifocals. I use bifocals to read and write.

Angela Lansbury, author of Quick Quotations For Authors and Speakers. I have several more posts about Benjamin Franklin, quotations and statues. Please share links to your favourite posts.