FRANCO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP

I haven't been online much this week. Too much work and my back has been bothering me more. The nice folks at the Washington University pain management clinic have made some suggestions, including a new way to zap me. I get by but I'm getting less done.

So I have to pull out another image from New Orleans. This is the interior of St. Louis Cathedral (yep, same saint as ours, but this building is not to be confused with the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica here). The US acquired vast territories west of the Mississippi from France in 1803. The proceeds helped finance Napoleon's war machine. We got the better deal.    

Morning In America

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Yippie!

The title refers to a TV ad when Ronald Reagan ran for president. The painting is from the grafitti-permitted section of the Mississippi River flood wall depicting sunrise over the stream, I suppose. However, hallelujah!, the forces of darkness have been pushed back. (Notice that I didn't say defeated. It never goes away.)

My political views leak through a bit on these pages but I usually avoid being explicit. Not today. I am full of joy and relief at the results of our national election. The president was re-elected. My superb senator, Claire McCaskill, won re-election against an extreme right winger and millions of dollars in outside money. I think most or all of my international readers agree with me. Some of my U.S. readers will not. In any event, I vote for us, not just me. That's my philosophy. We did not - we will never - win them all but yesterday those whose views I share won the big ones.

So here's another symbolic sunrise: