My favorite version of Arthur Hamilton’s song, Cry Me A River, was covered by Joe Cocker. I especially like the live version. While others pump up the bagpipes or crank out The Pogues to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I cue up Cocker’s version today.
One of the things you can still count on in Chicago beyond crazy politics and potholes is that every St. Patrick’s Day they still dye the river green. For some reason the first time I heard about that tradition Hamilton’s song title morphed in my brain to Dye Me A River.
Well, it’s St. Patrick’s Day again, and yes both traditions will continue. They’ll dye the river green and I’ll play the song. I’ll also down a pint and have some corned beef and cabbage, a family tradition, though none of us are Irish.
But I’ll be staying away from any of the large number of parades honoring the day. It’s one thing when the river runs green, but I prefer my beer downed once, and not tossed back up into the streets.
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First up, John Gruber in Daring Fireball takes on the broad gulf in the Gulf of Mexico (America) debate in a well reasoned, often too nuanced post entitled 
Like the series itself the evening had its ups, its downs, and its moments of mediocrity, but taken as a whole it was a keystone event chronicling a key cultural touchstone in entertainment history that’s been in and out of my life since the year after I graduated high school.
I remember the first time I saw the show, well into its first season, and remarking in a bit of awe that they can’t do that on TV. Well, they did.
And I’m glad they did.
Like I said, I’ve blown hot and cold through the years, but having been around show biz for the majority of my life I know there are more misfires than there are direct hits. Even so, you certainly can’t deny the cultural impact the show has had and that’s a credit to both longevity and the willingness to fail and flail.
While I’m sure some of the sketches from the special will be criticized for not landing, the fact that some did and some didn’t seems like the perfect celebration of walking that fine line.
The good news for those who might not have tuned into the broadcast is that you don’t have to wait around for highlights to appear on YouTube as the entire special (over 3.5 hours) is available for streaming.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at 
The documentary itself is excellent work. The six episodes splice together historical footage-some already famous, some new-with interviews from those who were actually there, on all sides of the conflict. We’ve seen similar story telling techniques in other historical documentaries. This time around we get to hear not just from Americans, but also from North Vietnamese and Viet Cong voices. These moments are certainly compelling, as are some of the stories of the journalists and other non-combatants involved.
Add to that what I’ll call the reunion factor. Each episode features a couple of individuals who served together to tell their stories, often with completely different views on the war and its aims. In the episode’s conclusion they are then reunited. It’s effective and at times emotional and effectively reveals the folly and tragedy of division.
As good as the series is at chronicling an inflection point in American and world history, what got me thinking was again witnessing scenes of anti-war protests. While I’ve seen many such scenes before, watching them through the prism of this contemporary moment of peril we’re trying to find our way through in the U.S left me curious and unsettled.
There’s no doubt that those anti-war protests had an impact on America culturally and politically. That tumultuous era created new alliances and divisions over root causes that we are still fighting over today. But as I watch those surging crowds of protesters, knowing how history often repeats and/or rhymes, I remind myself that was a different age. One without the organizing tools like social media and mobile communications that we have at our disposal now.
As I and many others anguish over the lack of leadership defying what is happening currently in Washington DC, I’m left wondering, given the tools we have at our disposal today, what it will take to effectively take advantage of those tools and galvanize, as was done then, to meet the challenges of today. Certainly the forces we’re now in contest with have bought and pillaged some of those services and learned how to use them more effectively than those in the reluctant opposition.
Perhaps we lost this round when most of us left Twitter to avoid the cesspool of Elon Musk’s making, instead of sticking around and forcing them to toss us off.
It took time in that era for anti-government pressure to come together and coalesce with enough momentum to bring change. And yes, it also took events like the murders of student protestors at Kent State, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy, not to mention the too many casualties of war.
Let’s hope we don’t need the time, or that type of violence, for leaders to emerge and spark enough outrage to bring a stop to the evil we now face. I’m not talking about leaders emerging from conventional political party structures. I’m talking about from the ground up. The tools are there. It should be easier to organize and get the word out with less effort than it was during the age of the War in Vietnam.
Here’s also hoping we have the courage, conviction, and most importantly the desire to do what is necessary when the time comes.
Because it’s coming.
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at 
With trade wars now needlessly underway most of the big news ahead this week will be in the financial markets. John Lanchester has an excellent piece with excellent context about finance and what he calls “its grotesquely outsize role in the way we live now” in 
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 