*Adm. Stockdale, RIP. (Can't you just picture him before the Lord, opening his defense at particular judgment with, "Who am I? Why am I here?") He received 26 combat decorations and endured 7.5 years in a Vietnamese prison camp on our behalf. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord. . . .
*Paris loses its Olympic bid to London. Best of both worlds! Paris doesn't get it, but neither does New York, so we don't have to spend the next few years reading "Will they be ready in time?" and "City ignoring plight of urban poor to finance sports venues" stories.
French President Jacques Chirac, who had traveled to Singapore for the city's final presentation to the IOC, learned of the defeat aboard the plane carrying him to the G8 summit in Scotland. Chirac congratulated London and wished "good luck and full success to the authorities and British people," his office said.
"And to the athletes and spectators, good luck finding a decent wine to wash down your mad cow & kidney pie," they added.
*Maybe we no longer have Paris, but we'll always have Budapest? They're putting up a statue of Reagan there (see the final item in the link).
*Really cool story on Thomas Hamill, the American hostage in Iraq who escaped his captors last year. His portrait of the typical contractor gives the lie to the media portrait of them as dupes of the American military. You don't build men like him from the culture of therapism, as Christina Hoff Sommers dubs it.
*Jonathan Yardley's terrific re-review of Flannery O-Conner's The Habit of Being. Includes the wonderful anecdote of her being at some stuffy literary party when the conversation turned to the Eucharist. One of the grande dames allowed as how the host is a wonderful symbol. To which O'Conner responded, "If it's just a symbol, then to hell with it." Amen, sister. Of course my attention was drawn to the idea of the Eucharist coming up at a society dinner party at all. Times, they change.
*Finally, just for laughs. Lil' Sis had a college roommate whose prissy French grandmother used to say (read the following in a French-accented-Julia- Child-high voice): "Girls, we must suffer for beauty." Thought of her seeing this. (I broke my ankle, but I looked smokin'.)
