Tercentenary Minus Zero, Liftoff!

Today is the day! Ben Franklin turns 300. All citizens of the United States, fans of public libraries, wearers of bifocals, users of electricity, volunteer firefighters, and lovers of the Glass Armonica should celebrate.

I persuaded Fermilab's daily newsletter to run a 200-word item and volunteered to write it.

In other news, Stardust made it home Sunday with samples from Comet Wild 2. I plan to give a talk at Confusion next weekend covering Stardust, Genesis, and Deep Impact.