A few bits and pieces

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On my way to the supermarket this afternoon I saw the aftermath of a horrendous car crash. A head-on, with bits of wreckage strewn across the road. I've since learned that one person was killed in the crash and two others are in a critical condition. This is a trip I make regularly, and it's shocking to think that one of those vehicles contained victims who had done nothing more than be in the wrong place at the wrong time. My boy seems to have a phonographic memory, which sounds great until you hear him reciting lines of dialogue from movies and shows for hours at a time. Okay,maybe not for hours, but it sometimes feels that way. On the other hand, he can also recount most of Poe's The Raven, so it's not all bad. Here are a couple of things about the tragedy in Paris that maybe haven't been discussed yet: 1) On November 13 1918, the allied forces occupied Constantinople (Istanbul), effectively ending 450 years of the Ottoman Caliphate. Is this a coincidence, or did these well-coordinated attacks have a sense of history to them? 2) I wonder if Friday's events have handed the White House keys to a Republican? Too early to tell, perhaps, but I suspect that national security and foreign policy will now be major factors in deciding the next Leader of the Free World. Hillary is hawkish enough but her record on Libya and the Arab Spring isn't convincing, while "enemies at the gate" has always been an effective GOP rallying cry. And finally, how soon will it be before someone high profile starts quoting Kipling's The Stranger? If you don't know the poem, there's a link below. Stay well