Daydreaming type

One of the signs of success of an artist is when a creation becomes a new definition in the dictionary.  Such is the case for James Thurber, whose short story, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty“.  His short story first appeared in 1939 and was later added to his book, My World and Welcome To It in 1942.  It has been made into a movie twice, once in 1947 and again in 2012.

Walter Mitty is a mild daydreamer who concocts a vivid imaginary life for himself in all kinds of occupations – surgeon, assassin, pilot – among many others.  The term, Walter Mitty, has come to mean a hapless daydreamer whose dreams accomplish almost nothing.  While played by Danny Kaye and Ben Stiller with comedic intent, the actual message is somewhat more tragic with the life unfulfilled and a rather horrid ending.

Besides gaining a definition in your dictionary, Walter Mitty has also achieved notoriety in several songs and is even a slang term in the British military for someone who impersonates a British officer.

Money source since 2009

Hmm – I was trying to think of some currency, but the clue was rather long for any of the currencies I could think of, but with a few more letters, the answer became clear:  Kickstarter.  Launched in 2009, it is a company of 121 people working in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  Since its inception, 9 million people have pledged more than $1.8 billion dollars for 89,000 projects.

Touted as a new way to fund projects, it actually allows the creators to retain 100% ownership of their work.  So how does Kickstarter make money?  If a project is successfully funded, Kickstarter gets 5% of the collected fees.  If a project does not make its funding goals, no fees are collected.

The types of projects are wide and varied with Art, Comics, Crafts, Design, Fashion, Games, Journalism, Music and Technology to name just a few.  The projects are just that – definable projects.  Kickstarter does not collect funds for charities or other fund-raising activities.

A look today at Kickstarter showed someone with a better light bulb, a mobile observatory and a pizza tour by a self-described pizza aficionado.  Jewelbots – a bracelet designed to teach girls how to code has already collected $89,935 dollars of its goal and Lumos, a new bicycle helmet has exceeded its initial goal and has collected $256,700.  Want to see more?  Check it out at www.kickstarter.com

“The Black Tulip” novelist

You may have read or at least heard of his other novels such as The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, and The Count of Monte Cristo, but even with some exposure to French literature, I had not heard of the The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas – pere.

The story is based on a compilation of two stories in Dutch history:  the 1672 murder of two statesman and the tulipmania that gripped the country during the Dutch Golden Age.  These days, it is considered to be one of the first economic bubbles much like the dot-com bubble or real estate bubbles of today’s age.  In its peak, in 1637, a prized bulb sold for more than ten times what the average craftsman made at that time.

Competition was fierce to say the least during the mania, and Dumas weaves its story into the murder by implying that jealous over the growth of a black tulip led to the imprisonment and eventual execution of one of the growers.  Of course, there is also a love interest, jealousy and conspiracy – it is Dumas after all, n’est-ce pas?