This week we look at: Pompeii destroyed; the Wall; monuments; scouting friendships; feel good TV; piano man; Harvey.

Pompeii, August 24, 9AD. (Or, CE 9 if you prefer) Be that as it may, this was not a good day to have been on your late-summer Mediterranean vacation when the long-dormant Mt. Vesuvius erupted, burying an estimated 20,000 souls. The volcano was once again rumbling, smoking when I cruised past last year.
     On this same day in 1989, plain speaking, voluble MLB great, Pete Rose, was banned from baseball for life by commissioner, A. Bartlett Giamatti. Rose, who had gambled on baseball games, remains a controversial figure. Into Cooperstown's MLB Hall of Fame -- or not?

Trump's Wall. "Mexico will pay for it!" Or not? So will the government be shut down until someone ponies up the money? Stay tuned.

Whose monument? As this NYT article notes, monuments of all sorts abound all across our nation. The recent outcry over Confederacy-related monuments has broadened. For example, questions have been renewed about Columbus, and been newly opened about others: former Philadelphia "law and order" mayor, Frank Rizzo, Boston's historic Faneuil Hall (Mr. Faneuil was a slave owner/trader), even the MD state song. What the debate highlights is simple: future events and attitudes may render today's heroes, tomorrow's villains. One can only imagine the outcry that would have erupted around the then soon-to-be-out-of-favor communist witch-hunter, Senator Joseph McCarthy. Rather, civil debate and reasoned dialogue seem appropriate.
     Kathleen Parker's recent column began, "You know we’ve reached a point of — something — when [an ESPN] sports announcer named Robert Lee is reassigned from calling a University of Virginia football game because of his contemporaneously unfortunate name" So true.
     On the less troublesome side of the coin, Denver still has "Sports Authority Field at Mile High." The stadium remains "Mile High," but alas, the Sports Authority corporation has since "gone belly up." 

Scouting and Japanese internment friendships. In the aftermath of rage at Charlottesville, this Washington Post story recounts a near-lifelong friendship born in the dark WW II period between two strangers in Cody, WY: a young Japanese-American, Normal Mineta, and an equally youthful local, Alan Simpson, whose family had deep roots in Wyoming. They met at a Scouting jamboree, one held inside the internment camp's barbed wire compound and boycotted by all the nearby scouting Wyoming troops -- except Simpson's.
     Mineta went on to become a mayor, Democratic congressman and cabinet secretary for two presidents. Simpson served three terms as Republican senator from Wyoming. They served 16 years together in Congress. Recounting a recent meeting, "...their wives [just] shake their heads and roll their eyes. They’ve seen this show before. 'It’s like they’re 12 years old again,' says Deni Mineta. 'Look at the two of them.' " Scouts buddies to the end!
     Then there is this story of the aging All Saints Episcopal church in Smyrna, TN, that was saved from closing by the refugees from Myanmar, whom they had only recently welcomed. Would that every young American could meet and get to know someone so different.

Hallmark TV. In the midst of  the world-wide chaos and turmoil, the feel-good Hallmark channel is "the only non-news channel in the top 15 to see substantial viewership growth last year...and the Christmas movie marathon hasn't even started yet." A friend calls Hallmark "the cry-baby channel." Whatever. A mark of the times?

That "old" piano. Is the acoustical piano dead, slain by its current digital electronic keyboard-cousin? This article from the Economist discusses the current scene. "Those old piano roll blues."
Incidentally, for you nostalgia fans, vinyl records are making a comeback.

Harvey. For those old enough to remember, you may have quickly associated "Harvey" with that large "invisible rabbit," Jimmy Stewart's sidekick. Alas, this week's Harvey is a massive storm, a harbinger of the increasingly violent weather which may plague us in the future. See former Vice President Al Gore's sequel to his award winning film, "An Inconvenient Truth."

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