Re: [71attendees] During IETF-71: Philadelphia Beer Week :-)

[Marshall Eubanks <[e-mail]>]

On Mar 1, 2008, at 8:38 PM, Clint Chaplin wrote:

> On 3/1/08, Marshall Eubanks <[e-mail]> wrote:
>>
>
>> This quote from a noted Philadelphian seems apropos :
>>
>>  "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
>>  -Benjamin Franklin
>>
>
> He never said it.  He never printed it in New Richard's Almanack, and
> it never appeared in any of his writings.
>
> The closest quote is something to effect that "Wine is proof that God
> loves us" (approximate quote; the original is in French), which was in
> reference to the biblical miracle of turning water into wine.
>
> And, considering that Franklin was a teetotaler for most of his life,
> it wouldn't make sense that he'd say it in the first place.

Was he now ? It had escaped my notice, and I have read a fair amount  
of Franklin.

Was he a teetotaler circa 1744, when he wrote a
drinking song (each refrain referring to "Friends and a bottle") ?  
True, in 1771 he wrote in his
Autobiography as one of his virtues "drink not to elevation," but not  
to elevation is not the same as
not at all, and it was listed as one of 13 virtues to aspire to,  
clearly implying the occasional lapse.
Was he a teetotaler in 1777, as Ambassador to France, when the news  
from America was bad and he said, asking for more wine at a dinner  
party, "There is nothing better to do here than to drink: how can we  
flatter ourselves... that a monarchy will help republicans revolted  
against a monarch ?"  Or how about in 1779, when in his famous appeal  
from
the flies of Benjamin Franklin, he said (speaking about himself, from  
a fly's perspective) "Often, when his friends and himself have used  
up a bowl of punch, he has left a sufficient quantity to intoxicate  
100 of us flies."

And, most famously, in 1784 (if my sources are to be believed), the  
Abbe Morellet wrote a song which said that the American revolution  
was started because Franklin had decided to switch from British beer  
to French wine, which "could sooth the soul, I am told, of Benjamin."  
He responded with an essay on wine "from the Abbe Franklin", which is  
fairly available on the Internet (see, e.g.,

<http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.899/article_detail.asp> )

and which includes this postscript

"To confirm still more your piety and gratitude to Divine Providence,  
reflect upon the situation which it has given to the elbow. You see  
in animals, who are intended to drink the waters that flow upon the  
earth, that if they have long legs, they also have a long neck, so  
that they can get at their drink without kneeling down. But man, who  
was destined to drink wine, must be able to raise the glass to his  
mouth. If the elbow had been placed nearer the hand, the part in  
advance would have been too short to bring the glass up to the mouth;  
and if it had been placed nearer the shoulder, that part would have  
been so long that it would have carried the wine far beyond the  
mouth. But by the actual situation, we are enabled to drink at our  
ease, the glass going exactly to the mouth. Let us, then, with glass  
in hand, adore this benevolent wisdom;—let us adore and drink!"

I also read once that he brought a quantity of French wine home with  
him as he left France after being Ambassador, and enjoyed the use of  
it, but I cannot find a proper attribution for this.

I do understand that he stopped drinking wine in the late 1780's for  
medical reasons after his return from France, as he suffered greatly  
from gout and stones at the end of his life.

So, he has never struck me as a teetotaler, which is why I gave  
credence to the "beer" quote, although it may just be a corruption of  
the part of the "Abbe" essay where he wrote "Behold the rain which  
descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters the roots of  
the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves  
us, and loves to see us happy."

And I will drink to that, in Philadelphia if the occasion arises.

Regards
Marshall




>
> -- 
> Clint (JOATMON) Chaplin
> Principal Engineer
> Corporate Standardization (US)
> SISA

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