Lately, the issue of religion in public schools has been in the news. Louisiana has a new law, mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. And Oklahoma will teach the Bible in grades 5 through 12. How will teachers teach it? Not sure.
Anyway, I lead my column, my Impromptus, with this subject. I also have notes on last week’s presidential debate and the campaign in general. I have a memory of Charles Krauthammer and Israel. And so on and so forth.
If this is up your alley, or seems so, go here.
Let’s have some mail. Watching the presidential debate, a couple of readers were reminded of songs. A reader writes, “I cannot be the only one who woke up this morning with a Simon & Garfunkel earworm.” And then he quotes:
Going to the candidates’ debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you’ve got to choose
Every way you look at this, you loseWhere have you gone, Joe . . .
(Forgive me for not knowing how to punctuate those lyrics — I mean , no idea.)
Another reader writes about “The End of the Innocence,” a Don Henley song from 1989. Here is a stanza:
“O beautiful for spacious skies.”
Now those skies are threatening.
They’re beating ploughshares into swords
For this tired old man that we elected king.
Armchair warriors often fail
And we’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales.
The lawyers clean up all details
Since Daddy had to lie.
Our reader says,
In the video, when Don sings “For this tired old man that we elected king,” there is shown a Reagan poster. Guess Don wasn’t a Reaganite. Wonder if he was watching the debate last night and what he thinks about the current situation.
“The End of the Innocence” is not my cup of tea, to put it mildly. But for “Desperado,” I’ll forgive Don Henley almost anything. (Wonderful song, especially when sung by other people — e.g., Linda Ronstadt.)
For reasons I could get into, readers and I have been talking about cigarette slogans — including, “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.” Grammarians objected to that, which Winston incorporated into further ads. (“Do you want good grammar or good taste?”)
Well, a reader has a memory of this: “Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch!” I remember those ads, in which everyone had a black eye. The history of American advertising is — interesting, and entertaining.
Thank you, one and all.