We were driving down to Columbia, Missouri, yesterday, when a huge plume of black smoke alerted us that something was wrong:

Sometimes I feel that patriotism, or its negative form, jingoism, causes a lot of strife in this world. We are , I think, now so interconnected that surely we don’t belong to just ONE country any more? I feel just as comfortable in Europe or the US or in Africa, because I do feel that people are the same everywhere…it’s just that customs may differ, and appearances. But the emotions and ties the bind us and the thoughts and ideas that move us, seem to be much the same all over the world.

Missed meeting by just about thirty miles, a few hours...and

I was actually on my way to the Muny to watch the musical, “The Little Mermaid”, but this beauty stopped me in my tracks: