June 4, 1883 in Annonay – near Paris – a balloon thirty-three feet in diameter was fed by a smoking bonfire of wet stew and old rags. The machine de aerostat was cut and rose 6,000 feet. When it landed the baloom was attacked by pitchfork waving peasants and torn to pieces as an instrument of evil. Benjamin Franklin, a witness, was asked what possible good could come out of such an invention. “Eh, a quoi bon enfant qui vient de naitre?” (“What good is a newborn infant?”) ~f rom Robert Fulghum Who was right? After all, planes soon dropped bombs from these flying machines.
Come for a dose of inspiration from some of the greatest (and at times oddest) minds of history. The table is set. Come eat.