Free Republic

There’s an old Aesop fable that warns readers not to “nourish a viper in one’s bosom.” According to the story, the viper will always turn around and bite its benefactor once it is strong enough. It’s a lesson the New York Republican Party seems to be having some trouble grasping. The party has chosen wealthy private security executive Mike Sapraicone as its preferred nominee to take on Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, despite his history of donations to liberal causes and Democrat candidates. Sapraicone easily won the support of 84 percent of delegates at the state Republican convention on Thursday. Party...

On an unknown date around the 560s B.C.E., the storyteller Aesop is supposed to have been executed in Delphi by being hurled from the Hyampeia rock. The semi-legendary fable-fashioner is not quite so irretrievable to history as, say, Homer, although assuredly many or all of the tales that have accrued under the heading “Aesop’s Fables” trace to origins other than this man. Supposed to have lived from the late 7th to mid 6th centuries B.C.E., Aesop is first referenced by history’s first historian, Herodotus. But by way of summation, we cannot improve upon Plutarch‘s succinct description of Aesop’s fate in...

Henry Livingston's poetic version of the old Aesop fable of the crane and the fox, read by Byron Nilsson and put to "Over the Water to Charlie" from Henry's Music Manuscript Book.

Henry Livingston's version of the Greek mythology fable about Midas, a poem written the year before Henry's death, when Henry was 78 years old. The neat handwriting was because it was written in his daughter Jane's Poetry Manuscript Book. Music is "Royal Wedding" from Henry's Music Manuscript Book. One of my favorite poems.

"The Ant and the Grasshopper," a fable by Aesop, provides a moral lesson about hard work and saving. During the warm months, the ant works hard to store up food for the winter, while the grasshopper sings and plays. When winter arrives, the grasshopper asks the ant for food because it has none. In today's world, China is like the ant, and America is like the grasshopper. America tends to focus on enjoying today instead of preparing for tomorrow. This trait has led to a nation of debtors. And, like for the grasshopper, our lack of savings may lead to...

It is not widely known that Aesop (floruit circa 550 B.C.), a visionary writer if there ever was one, composed two versions of the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper. The traditional version used to be very widely known — you’ll see in a moment why it is out of favor today — and it can be outlined briefly: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter,...

Once upon a time, Aesop wrote a fable about a Countryman who possessed the most extraordinary goose you can possibly imagine. Every morning when he went to visit the nest, the goose had laid one single beautiful, glittering, golden egg. The Countryman took the eggs to market and soon began to get rich. But it was not long before he grew impatient with the goose because she gave him only a single golden egg each day. He was not getting rich fast enough and was becoming quite greedy. Then one day, after he had finished counting his money, the...

AESOP is an action adventure story told with photographs of one-sixth scale figures in highly detailed scale environments, which appears regularly in Lees Toy Review Magazine. The stories are told in comic panel layout often with two or more installments per story and usually with a cliffhanger at the end of each installment. Combining the best elements of action films and comic books, AESOP has colorful, complex characters that transcend their plastic forms. AESOP is created using digital photography. Scenes are lit using standard motion picture lighting to achieve a film look. Editing and finishing is done on Adobes PhotoShop...