Zombie Ben Franklin

Apparently that's a thing.

Hey, I get to employ my little-used "zombies" tag for this post!

I took the online test for Jeopardy last night. I think I did okay. I was home with Lily and she alternated between trying to help and informing me that she was bored, and I'm not sure which was more distracting.  This test was pass/fail and I'll only know if I passed if I happen to be lucky enough to be called to the next round of auditions. Because of the number of people who apply, not everyone who passes the test will be asked to auditions. So, if I get an email inviting me, I'll go, and if not, I'll take the test again next time it's offered.

Anyway, my major concern is that I'll get there and I won't have any anecdotes to relate after the first commercial break. I'm boring.  "Yes, Alex, I blog about the works of an author nobody has ever heard of. Sometimes I watch cartoons with my daughter."

So I put out a call on Facebook to come up with stories I could tell on Jeopardy. A friend suggested the following.

"I will never forget the time that while discussing whether the use of Shikigami in modern society as a form of revenge had reached the same annoying level as Facebook flaming that you had to channel the spirit of Edgar Allen Poe to defeat and reseal the lich of Ben Franklin. That was a heck of a night."

I replied:  Ben Franklin!! Son of a lich! I thought his phylactery was that giant bell, so I cracked it, but apparently he keeps it in that accursed Institute of his!

Now I want to play that game, though! (Also, it would have been funnier if I'd claimed his phylactery was the Franklin Institute's walk-through heart. l'esprit d'escalier , I suppose.)

Maybe some Color out of Space entered into Franklin during his famous experiment. Or he prolonged his life with Masonic Rituals and Unholy Experiments with alchemy and electrical fluid. Or some Unknown Armies weirdness hinging on the Franklin era disagreements over the ideal shape of a lightning rod, as I really like Benny's pitch for the lightning rod!

"upright Rods of Iron, made sharp as a Needle and gilt to prevent Rusting, and from the Foot of those Rods a Wire down the outside of the Building into the Ground;...Would not these pointed Rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible Mischief!"

If anyone has any good ideas about the lich of Ben Franklin, I'd love to hear them!