Electrified The Ben Franklin Story Essays -

Electrified: The Ben Franklin Story In my opinion Ben Franklin was the most influential of the founding fathers. He did a lot more than just help found our nation though. He was also a scientist, diplomat, businessman, and philosopher. I can't think of any person who is more quoted than he is, and he lived 200 years ago! Benjamin Franklin, born January 17, 1706, was the 10th son of 17 children. He was born and grew up in Boston. Even though he was considered by most to be extremely intelligent, he only attended grammar school for 2 years. When he was just 10 years-old, Ben began to work for his father as a candle maker (Sahlman). In 1717, he began to regain some of the knowledge that he was deprived when he was pulled out of school to work for his father. Franklin began reading writings from such authors as: Plutarch, Defoe, and Mather (The Electric Franklin). This education obviously became very important later in his life to him and our country. It is like he said, Genius without education is like silver in the mine (Glenn). Ben Franklin grew up extremely quickly by today's standards. At the age of 17, he ran away from his home in Boston and moved to Philadelphia. Franklin slipped a letter, signed Silence Dogood, under the door of his brother's newspaper, the New England Courant. That letter and the next 13 written by Franklin were published anonymously. The essays were widely read and acclaimed for their satire (Sahlman). Once in Philadelphia he got a job as a printer. He established a friendship with the Pennsylvania governor, Sir William Keith. Franklin took Keith's suggestion and decided to go into business for himself. Franklin proved himself to be a great businessman (Sahlman). These are Ben Franklin's Top 10 Business Maxims: 1. Your first ambition should be the acquisition of knowledge, pertaining to your business. 2. During business attend to nothing but business, but be prompt in responding to all communications, and never suffer a letter to remain without an answer. 3. Never fail to met a business engagement, however irksome it may be at that moment. 4. Never run down a neighbor's property or goods and praise up your own. It is a mark of low breeding and will gain you nothing. 5. Never misrepresent, falsify, or deceive; have one rule of moral life, never swerve from it, whatever may be the acts or opinions of others. 6. Be affable, polite and obliging to everybody. Avoid discussions, anger, and pettishness, interfere with no disputes the creation of others. 7. Endeavor to be perfect in the calling in which you are engaged. 8. Make no investments without a full acquaintance with their nature and condition; and select such investments as have intrinsic value. 9. Never form the habit of talking about your neighbors, or repeating things that you hear others say. You will avoid much unpleasantness, and sometimes serious difficulties. 10. Be economical; a gain usually requires expense; what is saved is clear (Herrmann). Keith offered to arrange letters of credit and introduction for Franklin's trip to London to purchase equipment. Even though Franklin was a great business man, he wasn't expecting Keith to be unreliable. Due to the fact that he got to London without anything of real value, Franklin was stranded in Europe. He quickly found employment in two of London's largest printing houses, however, and after two years, earned enough money to return to America (Kavasery). By 1730 he was on his feet and owned his own printing company. It was that year in which he married Deborah Read. They had children in each of the next two years. They had William in 1731 and Francis in 1732 (Kavasery). At this time he began to publish and extremely successful book. It was called Poor Richard's Almanac. This book was extremely highly thought of. For the most part, it would be equivalent to the modern day Farmer's Almanac (The Electric Franklin). The Farmer's Almanac wasn't the only thing that he wrote. He also wrote an autobiography. In there he included his plan for moral perfection. Number 12 on his list of 13 things was chastity (Franklin 188-189). I don't think he got that far considering there is proof that he fathered

Legally Blonde Review essays

Legally Blonde Review essays Legally Blonde is full of a range of fantastic actors including: Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair, Mathew Davis and Victor Garber. It is based around the book by Amanda Brown. Legally Blonde is about Elle Woods who is the stereotypical blonde bimbo, who is president of her sorority house Delta Nu. With her pink fluffy pen and her pet Chihuahua Bruiser she is sure to turn heads. However Elles perfect world is turned upside down when her ambitious wealthy boyfriend, Warner Huntington, the 3rd, dumps her for being too blonde. Elle, who is torn by this, decides to take action and become exactly what Warner wants a serious Harvard Law Student! The beginning of the movie cleverly introduces Elle by using big close ups of Elles main features. It also gives the audience an impression of the sort of things she is interested in, this is shown through swapping from shots of Elle to shots of the other girls in her sorority passing a card for Elle around whilst also being involved in different activities showing the audience the sort of person Elle is. This also conveys their feelings towards Elle. The opening shot is also used to set the tone of the world the movie is supposed to be in. As well as introducing Elle this scene also starts the plot. From this Elle is set to have dinner with Warner and given the false impression that he wants to propose. This film also has excellent camera work. When Elle and Warner are having dinner the camera only shows the face of which ever one of them is speaking, and as the conversation becomes more intense the camera begins to slowly zoom in on each of their facial expressions until the tensi on breaks and the camera is left at a close up shot of Elles facial expression, which displays her disappointment. This is not only a breaking point in the movie but gives the audience an excellent view of both Elles and Warners emotions. Another similar example o...