CONTRASTS

FIERY DAWN

Tuesday, 8:30 AM.  32 degrees F at the ferry dock, 27 on the back porch.  Wind SSE, calm with light to moderate gusts.  The sky is mostly overcast, with the sun struggling to shine through.  The humidity is 67%, the barometer falling gently, now at 30.32".  The week ahead is forecast to be seasonally cold, and snowy.

   The dawns the last few days have been beautiful;  the morning sky is afire, but the atmosphere is frigid.  I haven't heard any news of the deer season, and don't see many hunters cars along the roadsides, or blaze orange-clad hunters walking the fields.  Looks pretty quiet.

   OFF THE CUFF

 "HAMILTON"

   The flap over VP Elect Pence being called out and lectured by the cast of the Broadway play Hamilton is evidently not going away.  Politically it is not that big a deal, and Pence has been very gracious in his comments, but the irony of the incident is palpable, at least to me.

   Ticket prices are outrageous, for one thing, and if a person has spent thousands of dollars for a brief evening of enjoyment for self and family one would think that the evening would at least be free of politically correct harassment from the actors on stage.

   Add to that the fact that the VP Elect should be due some minimal public courtesy.

   But the greatest irony of all to me is that the actors playing Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr are black; a complete fabrication of history, but one which is, I would think, a rather charming commentary on how really positive race relations are in this country.

   But I wonder what the reaction would be if the situation were reversed, and a white actor, perhaps Arnold Schwartzenegger, played Martin Luther King (in black face), and then lectured President Obama on the murder rate in Chicago.  All Hell would certainly let loose.