Benjamin Franklin and the Prius at Chautauqua

Sorry, I don't have a photo of Benjamin Franklin and the Prius.  I'll say something about them shortly... The photo here is of the Chautauqua Belle, one of only four steam-powered paddle boats left in the United States.  Once there were hundreds of such boats on Lake Chautauqua, ferrying food and passengers and supplies to places poorly served by roads.  The Chautauqua Belle is today a pleasure boat, taking passengers from the tiny town of Mayville to the even smaller town of Chautauqua, New York.

The story of Benjamin Franklin and the Prius starts near Bestor Plaza in Chautauqua.  One day I was strolling along the Brick Walk, which is the major thoroughfare in Chautauqua.  I passed a gentleman sitting at the outdoor cafe, and observed that beside him was a book entitled Benjamin Franklin and the Prius.  I did a double-take, which got noticed.  The man said that if I had a few moments, he would tell me about the book.  I was intrigued, so I sat down.

The man introduced himself as the author, Stanford Beebe.  He said he was giving away the book for a simple promise to read the book (204 pp) and write him an appraisal.  The book is a novel in which Benjamin Franklin, visiting the 21st Century, proposes a method to increase the number of women and minorities in the House of Representatives.  The method, Beebe says, is Constitutional, according to a 1968 Yale Law Review article.

Flipping through the pages, I felt that reading the book wouldn't be painful, and might even be interesting.  Well, I sealed the deal with Mr. Beebe and have started reading the book, which he wrote in 2007.  I haven't gotten very far, but I want to highlight a particular passage, where Sally is talking to Bently.  Sally says, "I'm not a computer person, and all this talk about the internet is Greek to me.  I guess it's the in thing..."  Sally's eyes were fixed on the laptop screen.  "It's amazing, all of it just coming out of the air, like it was here in the room all the time."

Sally is not an elderly woman; she's a Ph.D. student.  Memo to self:  When I write the Great American Novel, I need to watch out for comments on technology which may soon sound dated.

An element of re-creation for me is reading, and so reading an assortment of things was part of daily life for me at Chautauqua.  At home I like having classical music playing on the radio.  At Chautauqua I got something better.  Several times I had the opportunity to sit in the amphitheater and read while the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra ran through the music for the evening program.  If I were queen of some country I'm sure that I'd order the royal symphony to play for me every day at 2:00 pm.

One book that I haven't started, but am very much looking forward to reading, is by Eboo Patel, Sacred Ground -- Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America.  This is the young man's third book.  I regret not getting an autographed copy.  Oh, well.  At least I have a first edition.  As one reviewer said of this former Rhodes scholar, "Patel probes like a professor, inspires like a preacher, and writes like a poet."

Benjamin Franklin and Eboo Patel.  I have some interesting reading ahead.