When Shaun Usher was putting together his 2014 book, “Letters of Note,” he discovered something almost all his favorite subjects had in common: They made lists.
“Since we first began walking the earth, human beings have been creating lists of one kind or another,” he writes, “calmly content in the knowledge that all things are constantly being assigned, prioritized, ranked and streamlined to within an inch of their lives.”
Thus was the inspiration for “Lists of Note: An Eclectic Collection Deserving of a Wider Audience” (Chronicle Books), Usher’s new endeavor, which features 125 lists from the famous and interesting.
The book includes everything from Johnny Cash’s to-do list (“Kiss June” is one task) to Disney’s early ideas for naming the seven dwarves (Graveful, Chesty and Crabby).
Usher shared with The Post a few of his notable lists.
Frankly, my dear…
Few lines in cinema history are as famous as “Gone with the Wind’s” “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” — a response given by Rhett Butler to Scarlett O’Hara’s question, “Where shall I go? What shall I do?” In 2005, the American Film Institute named Rhett Butler’s line the “Greatest Movie Quote of All Time.”
But it could have been so different. Two months before the film’s release, American censors deemed the word damn to be offensive and asked for it to be removed. The decision was reversed just weeks later due to a quick amendment to the Production Code by the board of the Motion Picture Association. Before that change was made, however, with the word damn temporarily banished, the film’s producers prepared a list of alternatives.
I speak jive
New York pianist Harry Gibson (1915–1991) was something of an anomaly: an eccentric and frantic musician, he wowed audiences in the jazz clubs of Manhattan with his musical energy, before evolving into a rock ’n’ roller in later years. His constant use of jive talk stemmed from his years growing up near Harlem. The list seen here — a beginner’s guide to his dialect of choice — was printed on the inside cover of his album “Boogie Woogie in Blue,” released in 1944, the same year he coined the word “hipster.”
Franklin’s 13 virtues
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) was a high achiever, to say the least. At various stages of his life he was a scientist, musician, printer, journalist, author, businessman, politician and signatory to the Constitution of the United States.
Such a diverse range of roles, somehow all mastered by one man! All of which certainly makes his attitude to life and work worth studying by those attempting to better themselves. And the list seen here makes a perfect start. Here is his set of 13 virtues to live by, written by the 20-year-old Franklin in 1726 in an attempt to “live without committing any fault at any time.”
And follow them he did (if not always successfully), until his death at age 84, all the while keeping a book filled with charts to track his progress.
1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Naming the phonograph
In November 1877, prolific American inventor Thomas Edison debuted his latest project, the “phonograph,” a groundbreaking device that was capable of not just recording sound on its cylinders, but also replaying it, and which directly inspired the development of Emile Berliner’s cheaper, and ultimately more successful, record-playing gramophone some years later.
The earliest instance of the name “phonograph” can be found in a page of Edison’s notebook dated August 1877. Shortly before its launch, however, he and his colleagues came up with dozens of alternative monikers for the device — most bearing prefixes of Greek or Latin origin — and collated them in this list. None was used.
Einstein’s demands
By 1914, theoretical physicist Albert Einstein’s marriage to his wife of 11 years, Mileva Maric, whom he had met as a fellow student at Zurich Polytechnic, was fast deteriorating.
Realizing there was no hope for their relationship on a romantic level, Einstein proposed that they remain together for the sake of their two young sons, Hans Albert and Eduard, but only if she agreed to the following list of conditions. Mileva accepted the conditions, but to no avail. A few months later she left her husband in Berlin and moved, with their two boys, back to Zurich. After living apart for five years, they divorced in 1919. That same year, Einstein married his cousin Elsa Löwenthal. Mileva Maric would never remarry.
Conditions.
A. You will make sure
1. that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order;
2. that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room;
3. that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only.
B. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons. Specifically, you will forego
1. my sitting at home with you;
2. my going out or traveling with you.
C. You will obey the following points in your relations with me:
1. you will not expect any intimacy from me, nor will you reproach me in any way;
2. you will stop talking to me if I request it;
3. you will leave my bedroom or study immediately without protest if I request it.
D. You will undertake not to belittle me in front of our children, either through words or behavior.
Marry/not marry
In July 1838, 21 years before his groundbreaking book “On the Origin of Species” was published, 29-year-old naturalist Charles Darwin found himself facing a difficult decision: whether or not to propose to the love of his life, Emma Wedgwood. This was his handwritten solution — a list of gems of pros and cons of marriage. Indeed, the pros were too numerous to ignore, and six months later Charles Darwin and Emma Wedgwood were wed. The couple remained married until Darwin’s death in 1882. They had 10 children.
This is the Question
Marry
- Children — (if it Please God) — Constant companion, (& friend in old age) who will feel interested in one, — object to be beloved & played with. — better thana dog anyhow. — Home, & someone to take care of house — Charms of music &female chit-chat. — These things good for one’s health. — Forced to visit & receive relations but terrible loss of time. —
- W My God, it is intolerable to think of spending ones whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working, & nothing after all. — No, no won’t do. — Imagine living all one’s day solitarily in smoky dirty London House. — Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire, & books & music perhaps — Compare this vision with the dingy reality of Grt. Marlbro’ St.
Not Marry
- No children, (no second life), no one to care for one in old age.— What is the use of working ‘in’ without sympathy from near & dear friends — who are near & dear friends to the old, except relatives
- Freedom to go where one liked — choice of Society & little of it. — Conversation of clever men at clubs — Not forced to visit relatives, & to bend in every trifle. — to have the expense & anxiety of children — perhaps quarelling — Loss of time. — cannot read in the Evenings — fatness & idleness — Anxiety & responsibility — less money for books &c — if many children forced to gain one’s bread. — (But then it is very bad for ones health to work too much)
- Perhaps my wife wont like London; then the sentence is banishment & degradation into indolent, idle fool —
Marry, Marry, Marry Q.E.D.
How my life has changed
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Hilary North decided to stop en route to her job at the insurance brokers Aon in order to vote in the New York mayoral primaries, making her late for work. Had she turned up on time, it’s almost certain that she would have perished along with 176 of her coworkers, for her office was situated on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center’s South Tower, approximately 20 floors above the entry point of the second hijacked jet airliner.
Hilary North wrote this list shortly after the tragedy. A recording of it being read by her is featured in the Sonic Memorial Project, an audio archive of reactions to the event from all over the world.