Ships, Symbolism, and Stetsons
The idea of sailing the vast ocean scares the wind out of me. My early maternal ancestors were sea captains from Nantucket, but my...
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Reading Gaines wisdom.
I read, almost exclusively, historical biographies and the classics. A few nights ago, my wife walks into the house with Chip Gaines’ new...
The 4-hour bedtime routine
Circa 1997, the Newell household, Warrensburg, NY. I spend most of my evenings reading or working on my computer (my first PC). My wife,...
Hen Franklin speaks!
In the spirit of Benjamin Franklin's many pseudonyms, let's ask Hen Franklin* what she might have to say about our modern state. When any...
More Common Sense
A reflective essay about modern times and old foundations. Newell © Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages are not...
The Jefferson Suite (Part II)
I shared my post "Flipping Jefferson's Desk" with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello to get their opinion on my theory. Their...
Removing the Peale layer by layer.
In June, 2015, the Clarke Auction Company, located in Larchmont, NY, listed a portrait of George Washington, Lot 12, after Rembrandt...
Mom's personal decalogue of happiness
My mother is an astonishing person. She grew up in a small town, never went to college and worked as an office clerk at a factory for 40...
My brief career as a teenage mobster
When I was 18 years old, I purchased my parent’s 1967 Cadillac sedan deville for $500. It was a massive car. The front grille, bumpers...
The final portrait of Abraham Lincoln
In June 1861, a young artist named George Henry Story was invited to observe and make sketches of President Abraham Lincoln for a...
Flipping Jefferson's desk
I've been fascinated with Thomas Jefferson's revolving desk for a very long time. The arrangement is always the same with three elements:...
Luxury, Idleness, and Industry
Essay by Dr. Benjamin Franklin. Recently published in WISDOM MAGAZINE, March 1958 It is WONDERFUL how preposterously the affairs of this...
Hillsdale College Online Courses
I think Hillsdale College offers the best, and most important, online courses in America - and they're free! Even more astonishing is...
Notes from reading Branson
Notes from reading "Let's do it". (edited title) 33% New Ventures, 33% promoting, and 33% fighting fires (Taking care of business, a.k.a...
Meet Dr. Franklin
SOURCE: WISDOM MAGAZINE, March 1958 Dr. Carl Van Doren FRANKLIN HAD, I think, the most eminent mind that has ever I existed in America....
On creativity and motivation
I wrote this letter to my daughter, Nicole, upon her college graduation in 2012. I recommended she read Art & Fear by David Bayles and...
Maxims on bravery and death
A small collection. "A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most...
A miscellany of maxims; Part III
Continued from Part II To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying "Amen" to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to...
A miscellany of maxims; Part II
Continued from Part I Leadership is never inherited; sometimes learned , always earned. Simplicity is not an action plan; it's a state of...
A miscellany of maxims; Part I
I frequently take notes while reading. My note taking is an imperfect system but useful enough for me to have employed it for many years....
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