In Memory of...

...William Jennings Bryan. You may have thought that this blog was named after the famous(?) political figure, but it was actually named after my fish (who was named after the famous political figure). Well, WJB the fish is now in that giant fish tank in the sky. He was a betta-fish, so I hope they have a special way to separate him from the other betta fish so they don't fight. (Weird thought: he began struggling to survive around Tuesday last week. Tuesday last week was the 80th anniversary of the death of the real William Jennings Bryan.) All in all, WJB was a runt and generally docile for his breed. He began his life as a centerpiece at my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. That was almost 2 years ago, so that's a pretty good run for a runty fish. WJB was a very smart fish. I would tap his food jar on the counter and he would swim to the top to eat. When I came home he would swim around excitedly. (Well, maybe I conveniently came home while he was swimming around.) He loved to hang out in his little cave and would sometimes try to attack my finger through the glass. In general, I got more companionship out of that fish than one would expect and I am sad that he is gone. So I think I will have a drink tonight in his honor.

I think I will get another fish next week. He will be named Henry Cabot Lodge. Lodge was a short-time member of the House and a longer-time member of the Senate (about 30 years). He was probably most famous for his fight against the U.S. joining the League of Nations. In any case, I think I will pick a fish that is blue because Lodge was a strong Republican and I think that would be ironic.

In other news, go see March of the Penguins. It is a good documentary about Emperor Penguins that is narrarated by Morgan Freeman. Very well done, interesting, and you will feel the coolness of Antarctica as you sit in the theater. Seriously, it gets really cold in Antarctica and I wouldn't ever want to go there unless I was offered a lot of money and they gave me several jackets as well as some of those hand warmers.