Not bad for a 300-year-old Bostonian, right? -- Yes, today is Ben Franklin's tricentennial, and there is a wealth of info online about him, which probably suits this peripatetic inventor, statesman, and ladies man just fine. Like myself, he loved a good epigram and wrote some of the all-time gems, for example: "Beware the hobby that eats"(!), "A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges," and of course, "A penny saved is a penny earned." Hear hear! And while we're on the subject of scintillating New Englanders born on January 17th, everybody wish Nat a happy 34th too -- only 266 years later. ;-)