Poor Richard was the pseudonym of Benjamin Franklin in one of his first and most profitable publications, "Poor Richard's Almanack". In it he published weather predictions, farming tips and little bits of wisdom in the form of proverbs and aphorisms that have become some of the most famous sayings of all our grandparents. I gave this blog the name of Poor Richard as a tribute to this son of the Puritans, because he embodies a love of learning and the good life. (We know that with the ladies he was no puritan, and he also liked a beer.) This blog itself is a learning project for me, as part of a graduate studies program in eLearning at the Universidad de Salamanca, in which we are to explore the educational possibilities of the blog. I have taught American literature in American summer schools for ten years, and Benjamin Franklin is always one of the key players on my syllabus. I am hoing to blog him into my classroom this summer.

As a point of departure for this blog, which at this moment has no real detailed plan for the future, is to use some of the wise quotes bequeathed by Poor Richard as a platform for the treatment of a number of diverse topics.

1. "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest"

As a teacher, I have spent a good deal of time trying to share knowledge with others, but in that process I have to admit that I have benefitted probably much more than my students. Teaching is just as much a learning process as it is a teaching process. Learning something new every day is something I strive to do. Without it I feel mentally out of shape. Sometimes I feel like I was too slow in adapting this philosophy, and that I squandered too much time in high school and University . This course in eLearning has certainly taught me a lot. First of all, I never knew that 'wiki' meant 'fast' in Hawaiian. That's slick. I propose that we begin to use the word in normal every day context. It also gives me the interesting idea of trying to expand English with the inclusion of this type of ethnic word, often of very esoteric origin, better yet if from a language in danger of extinction. Anyway, this whole eLearning bit has opened the doors to a world that I didn't know existed, and helped me to partially creep out of the depths of my own digital illiteracy. I am still in the early stages of assimilating all this new hi-tech stuff, and at times feel like the cyberworld is a labyrinth in which you enter and the laws of time chage and you wake up hours later not sure if it was a dream or not, but I hope that as I advance in the course it will become clearer to me in what way I can use these tools to be a better teacher. For those of you who have not learned anything today I provide the following path to important knowledge

2. "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy"

Here we can see that the life of Ben Franklin was not completely puritanical. He like to sit down with a good pint and chill with his mates. He was of course, religious, although were he alive today I am 100 percent positive that he would be decidedly agnostic, having wised up in the 20th century. I don't know what beer he was drinking up there in Philadelphia, although I doubt it was the Rolling Rock that I had to suffer in my high school days, because this quote would in that case not exist. Ben did travel widely, living in France and Sweden as ambassador to the newly independent US, and perhaps had the chance to taste some of the delicious Belgian ales such as Leffe or, my personal favorite Duvel. But it is absolutly impossible that he tasted the world's best beer, the holy grail of golden ambrosia, the world's first super-lager, the original Pilsner beer from Plzen in the Czech Republic, as this brewery was established in the mid 19th century. Of course the best place to taste this beer is at the brewery in Plzen, but if you are in Prague there is one place to go: U Zlateho Tygra, The Golden Tiger, which is in Husova street in the old town. There is where the famous Czech author Bohumil Hrabal sat with his pint every morning while writing his books...