Monday, 23-Dec-2024 22:32:00 EST

     About

Paul Ding is the nom de net of a programmer and entrepreneur who retired in 1994 at the age of 41. You wouldn't recognize his current name; for that matter, neither would his mother. He adopted his wife's surname when they married in 1999. His original name is the same as a prominent television celebrity, although Paul earned his listing in Who's Who In The Midwest before the broadcast personage became well-known.

The original Paulding was John Paulding, who was a drunken deserter in 1780 - during the revolutionary war - along with Isaac Van Wert and David Williams. Having run out of money, they were forced to stop drinking - and decided to waylay a passerby.

That passerby, Major Andre of Her Majesty's Army, didn't have much of value - but he was wearing a nice pair of boots. When the three war crimi^H^H heroes removed his boots, out fell the plans to West Point.

Benedict Arnold was a genuine war hero, having given excellent service in the assault on Quebec. Anyone who can beat up on Canadians is bound to be a hero, eh? He was also a hero during the Saratoga campaign, the first great victory of the American Revolution, and the turning point of the war. But General Arnold was denied the position, authority, honor, and recognition due him.

Calling him a traitor is kinda nasty. He didn't just sell the plans to Major Andre. He ended up fighting on the loyalist side during the war.

And now, Ding has defined to pauld as to engage in reprehensible acts and thus be richly rewarded thereby. It is the contrapositive of Claire Booth Luce's observation that "no good deed goes unpunished".

Mr. Ding took over publication of The Observer as his first major entrepreneural enterprise. It was also his first major proof of the paulding principle: he put a lot of effort into that paper, and managed to fail miserably. No good deed, ya'know?

These days, Mr. Ding mostly observes that life is too short and the work day too long to do something you hate to do. He'd like to go fishing, but that seems too much like work. Maybe next month?