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Consider this column a Save The Date(s).

You know, like soon to be married couples who send out cute cards stating their nuptials date, time and place. They’re saying, “You’re probably going to be invited to our wedding eight months from now, so don’t plan a trip.”

A good friend of mine is a retired political science professor. He’s spending his retirement enjoying life in Charleston, traveling and writing a monthly column for this newspaper. Faithful readers will know I’m talking about Dr. David Gillespie.
I can’t help but think – and I haven’t asked him – at times this year he’s regretted not being in the classroom. The politics of 2016 are gold, Jerry, gold. (Seinfeld, if you don’t recognize the reference.)

June 3 was a big day for y’all. I hope you went to church before you started the celebration. If you had a parade, I missed it, but I bet it was nice.
If you’re scratching your head because you’ve forgotten this important day, consider that the first bikini was worn in public in Paris in 1946. But that’s not what you were so excited about.
Stan the Man Musial hit his 300th home run in 1955, but that pales in comparison to what we celebrated.
Howard Cosell’s first TV show was in 1957 on June 3, but so what?

Guns don’t kill people. Muslims do. There. Problem solved in six words. The only problem is that guns do, in fact, kill people when you have a murderous idiotic with his finger on the trigger, regardless of whether that finger is attached to a Muslim or a Baptist. The AR-15 is designed to kill humans quickly and efficiently. One of them killed 26 people in a Connecticut elementary school in less than five minutes. Another AR-15 killed 14 people in San Bernardino and 14 people in a theatre in Aurora, Colorado. Last weekend, an AR-15 was used to kill 49 people in a bar in Orlando.

Following the brouhaha over the gorilla being shot to death in the Cincinnati Zoo, I conducted a survey that is as valid as any of the political surveys being done with results coming in from five states.
Seventy-five percent of those surveyed think the gorilla should have been shot and killed. Nineteen percent think the zoo was wrong in shooting the gorilla. Six percent think the mother of the child should have been shot.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, use The Google or move on to another column because I’m not going to explain it to you.

Today, I am disappointed with myself. Coming off a very active May 13 - not an unlucky day, by any stretch of the imagination - and working a seven-hour shift covering the Presbyterian College Commencement on May 14, I hit the wall.

We interrupt our regularly-schedule column rotation to bring you this special edition of Franklin’s Corner – appearing in the same location since the last century.
After reading this, you’re going to ask yourself, “What’s so special about this? He ain’t gonna win no column award with this-un.”
And you’re probably right. The only reason I’m here is because one of the columnists scheduled begged off this week and I said to myself, “You know, the faithful readers are missing me. I need to throw them a bone.”