As snow fell on New York

Donald said God came to visit him in Trump Tower. He said it was totally unexpected but there he was in the flesh. Well, the spirit anyway, telling him he should open up his heart more to the people. Trump asked if there was something God could do for him. God seemed a little peeved but then said "What do you want Donald?" Could you turn the thermostat down a little. I don't want this global warming thing hanging over my head the whole time I'm President. I made all these promises to oil and coal companies, and you know, it doesn't look good with the Arctic melting. God said he would think about it, but told Donald once again to go easy on the people and the hair gel.

Trump knocked himself in the head for not taking more advantage of the opportunity. He could have asked whether he would have one or two terms in office, or if maybe Ivanka would one day be the first woman president, or who would be in the Super Bowl so that he could place his bets accordingly. Something like this only comes along once in a lifetime, maybe twice, who knows?

He pondered this propitious moment when he went to bed that night, not sure whether he should tell Melania or not. The next morning he woke up and it was snowing outside. That had to be a sign from God and so he decided to share his visit with the media. This sealed the deal as far as End Times pastor Tom Horn is concerned, Donald Trump is the messiah! Others were more circumspect but as the unexpected snow fell outside, some had to think that God may indeed work in mysterious ways.

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Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005

Dispatches from Vilnius

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