Here are the topics for this week's blog: the LRB, an eclectic weekly offering; toxicity close to home in the halls of Congress; Bernie's new money twist; rain, now fire; sounds of summer; finally crickets; Beijing in the winter; training camp; your people?; a troubling anniversary.

The London Review of Books. This week's blog post in LRB covered a wide variety of topics, nearly something for everyone: a recently discovered Charles Dickens relic, Queen Elizabeth II's childhood amidst the English upper-crust, who were often fascist-leaning, Barack Obama and the Mau-Mau related history of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport where he landed, dwarf planet Pluto and the 94th element, art in The Tube [London's subway]. 
     Re art in The Tube. London's underground is not alone in having art. Moscow's subway stations, many built far underground as bomb shelters and factories before/during WW II (aka The Great Patriotic War) were sumptuously decorated when the war ended. A major station in central Moscow, reputed to be the world's deepest, features crystal chandeliers; other treasures abound. If you go there, it is well worth the price to ride from station to station, get off at each and have a look around. Having ridden Washington, D.C.'s Metro and ridden "down into" the world's second-deepest station (Rosslyn), in 1984 I could not resist riding down into Moscow's deepest station. The USSR was alive and well in 1984, so as an American tourist, I may well have had a "watcher" in tow, but I was not looking.
     Music, too, abounds in many stations. NYC's subway is particularly tuneful and one station often features a concert violinist who plays for spare change to supplement his philharmonic salary. It is not at all uncommon to spot a musician hefting an over-sized instrument strapped to their back.

Toxic couches. Congress is now considering an overhaul of the nation's toxicity statutes and, would you believe, tests of the foam in six couch cushions from buildings on the Hill have tested positive for a known carcinogen. Members of Congress' so-called "couch caucus", take note! The couch of one of the bill's sponsors, Tom Udall (D, NM), tested positive.
     The high cost of living in Washington, D.C. has resulted in some elected officials sleeping in their Capitol Hill offices, hence the  unofficial "coach caucus." If memory serves, there was a time when it was against the rules for representatives or senators to "live" in their offices. Now those toxic couches, some in live-in offices, may have a felicitous effect on legislation.

Internet Money for Bernie. In yet another twist in the game of money-raising and campaign building, Senator Bernie Sanders (I, VT) hosted a nationwide, internet fundraiser from Capital Hill. A whole new meaning to "meet and greet."

Good News, Bard News. Colorado had its wettest-ever May and June. Now that the weather is drying out the abundant grasses will provide ample fuel for summer fires.

A welcome sound of summer. I opened the window beside my computer table on Friday evening and for the first time this summer heard the back yard crickets chirping merrily away. After Denver's very wet May, June, and early July, it has finally dried out enough for the blissful evening sound. Now I can fall asleep to the sound of the back yard lily pond fountains and Jiminy!

Beijing, Winter Olympics 2022. After a number of locations declined to host the 2022 games, Beijing was finally chosen in a close vote. Declining sites (Oslo, Munich, Stockholm) had past experience with Olympic games. It seems that taxpayers are increasingly unwilling to see their tax moneys spent on venues for Olympic competitions -- winter or summer. This growing reluctance highlights a need to step back from "the old way," perhaps establish one world venue for winter and summer games. "A common talking point about the Olympics is that it can be economically beneficial for host countries and cities, which receive a boost from added tourism and investment. However, there is little evidence to support this claim." In short, is it time to start thinking about the Olympic athletes and the facilities, not the money that can be raised for the host city/nation? 

The Broncos and Dove Valley. Washington Post columnist Colbert I. King laments that for the first time he is not anxiously anticipating news from NFL training camps. He opined, "The sport is being reduced to vaudeville...Unfortunately, Sunday after Sunday, some players use NFL fields across the fruited plain as platforms to display an intellectual development appropriate to juveniles...Frankly, I’m also embarrassed for them because they are too emotionally stunted to know better." Meanwhile, the first Bronco fan lined up at 1am Friday morning in Dove Valley for admission to the first camp session.

Feeling unloved?  A Saturday morning CBS news segment focused on a company that, for a price, will assemble your very own crowd.

Trinity in NM, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. On December 8, 1941, in his speech to a joint session of Congress, when FDR called for a declaration of war against Japan, he uttered the historic phrase, "... a day [December 7th] that will live in infamy....." FDR did not live to see three other dreadful days in world/American history: the days on which the US ushered the world into the age of atomic warfare with the Trinity test in New Mexico, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. Here is a link to a story that discusses  Five myths about the atomic bomb. Myths about which there has been much debate: (1) it ended the war; (2) it saved half-million American lives; (3) the only alternative was to have invaded of Japanese homeland; (4) Japan was warned beforehand; (5) its use was meant to gain diplomatic advantage over the USSR.
     In the more recent past, there is great outcry from our nation's leaders about the use of WMDs against civilians (chemical weapons by Hussein and al Assad). Most Americans have conveniently forgotten or, as the above story notes, excused our use of the ultimate WMD against civilians. Last week there was a PBS News Hour segment on America's first true "down-winders," the residents of Tularosa, NM, located only some 40 air miles from the Trinity blast. Like the Japanese, these New Mexicans were given absolutely no advance warning of (nor guidance regarding) hell that was about to be unleashed.
     Upon witnessing the Trinity explosion, the "father" of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, said,  "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."

Thanks for reading. Have a peaceful week.