The Tail that Wags the Dog

“The tail that wags the dog.”

Now, there’s an interesting turn of phrase! This one’s a bit more easy to understand to our modern ears than four score or red herring, for instance. It describes how a small part of something can actually start to control the entire thing, sort of like if a tail began to wag a dog, instead of the other way around.

This metaphor leads us naturally to the story of Benjamin Franklin once again.

Long before his pivotal role in the American Revolution, Franklin was using the power of the press in a way that would set a precedent for the influential role of media in shaping public discourse and opinion.

Franklin’s journey with the printing press began at an early age. At the age of 12 he became an apprentice to his brother James, who ran a printing shop in Boston.

Now, I majored in painting and printmaking back in art school. I had little interest in printmaking at first, but I gained a very healthy respect for how difficult the work can be. Rolling a carefully p…