Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Getting Your Dander Up

Over the weekend several groups in DC jointly sponsored a clinic to spay and neuter stray and homeless cats. By all measures, the event was a remarkable success, with 500 felines being fixed.

Some people, though, seemed to take issue with the location of the clinic: An elementary school cafeteria. The resulting uproar from parents finally led to the cancellation of classes for today so that the building could be thoroughly disinfected.

Personally, I don't see what the problem was.... Unless, of course, today's lunch menu included spaghetti and mystery meatballs.


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Passing The Puck
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice. That, of course, was the US Olympic hockey team's victory over the evil Russians in the 1980 winter games in Lake Placid.

To fully appreciate what that event meant to Americans, you have to remember the circumstances at the time: The Iranians had seized our embassy and 52 hostages only months before, the Russians had recently invaded Afghanistan, the US economy was in tatters, the humiliation of Vietnam was still fresh, Watergate had destroyed our faith in ourselves, and there was a putz in the White House.

Er, a different putz.

In short, the morale of America was at as low as it had ever been, and faith in our future was virtually non-existent. So when a group of zit-faced college students and other assorted amateurs took to the ice motivated by nothing more than the love of hockey, no one expected them to amount to anything.

Instead they defeated what was considered to be the finest group of hockey players in the world, and in so doing restored a nation's faith in itself.


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