Monday, January 22, 2007

It is only a Stormont

A friend at work stopped by my office today to show me an interesting quote from a book she is currently reading - Benjamin Franklin, by Walter Isaacson. In chapter 13, there is a short paragraph that describes a minor difficulty Franklin had while visiting Paris trying to drum up support for the US. There was a Lord Stormont (from England) who was there apparently spreading lies about Franklin, trying to discredit his reputation. Franklin's alleged response to this was, "It is not a truth. It is only a Stormont." Supposedly this led to the use of the catch-phrase stormonter, used among the hip Parisians of the day to refer to liars. It was supposed to be a French pun for menteur, which in French means liar.

So there you have it - in case you didn't already know this - my name is synonymous with liar - at least amoung 18th century hip Parisians, and Mr. Franklin. (Yes, although not mentioned anywhere in this blog, my last name is Stormont. The pseudonym I used of "Mostly Torn" is derived from MostTornBrain - an anagram for my real name.)

So, everything you read here on this blog should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, it's only a Stormont.