West Michigan's Morning News
4th of July Internationally
It's time for today's Lucky Land Horoscope with Victoria Cash. Life's gotten mundane, so shake up the daily routine and be adventurous with a trip to Lucky Land. You know what they say. Your chance to win starts with a spin. So go to luckylandslots.com to play over 100 social casino style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Get lucky today at luckylandslots.com. No purchase necessary, VGW Group, void were prohibited by law, 18 plus, terms of condition supplied. Jonathan Savage, who not only joins us from London this morning, the day before our Independence Day, but he joins us from Ben Franklin's London home. No way, Jonathan, thank you for doing this today. Yeah, hello, good morning. What's that like, is it open for tourism? Is it weird to be there just before the big holiday here? It's a little weird, but it's very cool, I have to say. It's very, it's sort of thing if you didn't know it was here, you would normally miss it. Might walk right past it on a narrow street, just around the corner from a better-known landmark Trafalgar Square. And it's a six-story-high townhouse built in 1730. There's a lot of buildings around. But at the moment, you can actually miss it because the front is best tuned in red, white and blue ribbons and garlands because they are having special events to mark Independence Day tomorrow. And it is a place where you can visit if you're on a tour of your visiting London. You can walk through the house, walk on the very floorboards, Benjamin Franklin, walked on. Under his roof, see his fireplace, see how he lived, where he wrote, where he met dignitaries. And you can even see his wallet, which is kept in a glass cabinet downstairs, among other art fans of the time. That is fascinating, Jonathan, and my mom is a history teacher. So we took a lot of that stuff in, Philadelphia and everything on the East Coast here. But I'm curious, Ben Franklin is noted for his kind of, I would say, weird inventions. And so are there any of those that you would find in his home? Yeah, there's a glass arm moniker. There's a whole room devoted to his inventions. And a story about how one of his inventions caused a falling out with the king. He had designed the first lightning rod, but a British scientist said, "Hey, that's the wrong kind of tip. You should have a pointy tip, not a round tip." And this dispute was overseen by King George and King George, as you would expect, came down on the side of the British scientist, but they were proved wrong. Ben Franklin was proved right. He had the last laugh and our lightning rods today are based on the Franklin design. Yeah, but the king kept his wallet. Is that part of the reason why? Well, I think part of the reason why is that Benjamin Franklin, he left in a bit of a hurry. He, of course, was sort of a go-between between the colonies and the British royals for much of the time here. He's almost an unofficial ambassador, America's first unofficial ambassador. But over time, of course, his views on America's future changed. He became more of a supporter of independence. And he was best off back over that side of the Atlantic. And he fled London just a week before a warrant was issued for his arrest. He might be smart to add that Jonathan originally from Scotland, a country where you kind of had some similar ideas about the Commonwealth. So we have an ally. In the country itself, on a day like today, is it even noteworthy? I mean, obviously we're the best of friends now as allies. Is there any eye-rolling going on? What will the king do for independence? Well, there are certainly no hard feelings. And really, I think here we don't think there's anything to do with us anymore. I mean, obviously, for you guys, it is. But we actually quite enjoy participating, if that's not too strange an idea. But we have American friends and we will go to their house and have to have the past to enjoy. Fourth of some fireworks in the garden. And there are get-togethers of Americans all over London and all over Europe. And Denmark has an official national independence day event every single year where thousands of people get together for a massive picnic. And it's held speeches by the likes of Walter Cronkite, Walt Disney, Dion Warwick. So, you know, there's people all over the world wishing you well. That is Jonathan Savage with Fox News Radio at Ben Franklin's home in London this morning. Thank you for your time today.