In the News - or Not

What else happens in the world while primaries continue? Here is a small sample I found earlier this week. It makes for a good contrast.

First, a sad bit of news. Times change, even when those times represent almost 150 years ago.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - For decades, visitors willing to shell out a few extra dollars at Gettysburg National Military Park could be entertained — or bored — by an electric light display showing troop movements in that pivotal Civil War battle.

With the opening of a new museum and visitor center that offers a bigger "wow" factor for the park's nearly 2 million visitors each year, the National Park Service has decided that its 1960s-era electric battlefield map is obsolete.

I remember that battlefield map from when we went there when I was a kid. I don't know how old I was but it was intriguing to watch. Remember this was in the Dark Ages.

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Now for something even older- and far more mysterious. It isn't as obvious an answer if you are asked who's buried in Schiller's Tomb?

BERLIN - Who is buried in Friedrich Schiller's tomb? Several people, apparently, but none of them the famous poet and playwright, according to new research.

After two years of painstaking DNA research, experts have determined that none of the remains billed as those of Schiller belong to the German writer, who died in Weimar in 1805, Germany's MDR television reported.

My question (without taking the time to look it up) is who wondered in the first place that Schiller wasn't there and why did they even care?

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Still over there in Germany, something that sounds like an old camp idea from our sr high camp.

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of Germany's Social Democrats, who has ambitions to be his country's next leader, is thinking about donating his beard to charity, but is not quite sure.

Kurt Beck, who as party leader has a strong claim to lead the SPD into next year's national election, said in a panel discussion in Mainz that he might shave off his beard to raise 1 million euros ($1.5 million) for charity, the newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported.
"It must be serious and not turn into a spectacle," he told the paper. "The event would have to help the really needy."

This, to me, is neither new or news. I did this exactly 10 years ago at our Sr. High Camp. If the camp raised over $3,000 for that year's mission project I would shave my beard. They did it. I did. Then when I got home I find out that my wife never liked it. I had only had it for 18 years!

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Road rage, in reverse.

COPIAGUE, N.Y. (AP) A Long Island man who flipped his finger at a police cruiser and then popped a wheelie on his motorcycle is recovering from injuries after crashing. When the motorcycle turned into a parking lot it crashed into a police car that had joined the chase.

Let's hope it knocked some sense into the cyclist's head.

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This isn't really news, but it shows that what we think is new and different news is just a recycling of the past. Found this quoted in The Daily Dish:

American flag lapel pins had been distributed to members before the president spoke to Congress on April 2, 1917, requesting a declaration of war. It took a certain obdurate courage to refuse to wear the colors; Senator La Follette was among the refusers, as was the Mississippi senator Vardaman.

Good old fighting Bob La Follette. Ninety years later we still fight the same battles.

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And finally, speaking of Wisconsin (Bob La Follette was from there) where only the truly crazy of us go to root for the one and only team in the NFL:

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- David Witthoft finally shunned his Brett Favre jersey for a red shirt for the first time in 1,581 days. The 12-year-old Ridgefield, Conn. boy wore the No. 4 jersey every day since receiving it as a gift for Christmas in 2003.

Actually the story isn't from Wisconsin, only the team is. There are true Green and Gold fans everywhere. Don't tell us there's any other team that's America's Team. We were there first.

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Which reminds me of a joke I heard this week. It's a variation on an oldie but goodie.

Brett Favre has decided that in his retirement he wanted to be far away from professional football.

So he moved to Minneapolis.

By the way that is so old I remember it being told about the Green Bay Packers back in the 80s.