Ha, this is funny

Sunday January 1, 2006 - 1:59AM EDT

I am watching a documentary on the History Channel about how the first anti-drug laws came into use in the United States. The whole idea of marijuana being a gateway drug seemed to have been started in the 1930's during a campaign by the head of the newly formed Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Jacob Anslinger. That idea has lasted until today and I bet most people don't even know where it came from. It is interesting to see that the illegality of drugs was not something that always was but developed over time under various circumstances.

Speaking of history I searched for and found the Edision personal diaries. Rutgers university has a website for them. They are the only known personal diaries Edison kept and it is only for a few days in the summer of 1885. When reading the diaries what struck me most was the informalness of it. Obviously diaries are informal but it read like mine or any other personal blog on the internet. What and how he thought was pretty much along the same lines as someone today would think. When you study history you through the filter of history books one often isn't able to empathize with historical figures. They seem distant and completly unlike yourself or anyone from your time. But reading these diary entries, aside from the setting and some slightly different language I can totally see Edision as a everyday person now. He talks about his dandruff and not lingering in bed in the morning. His entries are almost like streams of thoughts. They jump from topic to topic abrubtly sometimes. He will sometimes just interject a sentence of random thought into a larger narrative of something else. He spoke about how when he first tried to catch a ball he almost broke his finger. It is just different to have a mundane view of someone who is otherwise seen as this great pioneer only. Speaking of mundane views I really hate those "reality tv" shows that purport to be that mundane view of life but are just as made up as any sitcom. Edison talks about how he needs to not smoke so much, its kind of funny sometimes. I'd like to read more things like this of other historical figures. In addition to getting the structured filtered stuff.