Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age
Jul 1st 2004WallabyGeneral & laughter
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. dropped out from his job at General Electric to become a full-time writer. [If I wanted to be a writer, I might care more.]
Henry David Thoreau went off for two years to live alone in a cabin at Walden Pond. [I could do that.]
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space. [Not that.]
Memphis millionaire Frederic W. Smith, whose father built the Greyhound bus system, founded Federal Express. [It's been done. Now.]
Scottish botanist David Douglas discovered the Douglas fir. [Another only-once.]
Ernest Hemingway published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. [I never wanted to write a novel anyway.]
Boston dentist William Morton pioneered modern anaesthesiology after learning that inhalation of ether will cause a loss of consciousness. [Lucky accident. And he wasn't the first to use ether, either.]
