Surprise! Some comments on current events

As you already know, if you have been reading these scribblings for a while, I don't often comment on current events. Today I will.

One reason I don't do much commentating (is that really a word?) is because the "current" in current events is so slippery. Once upon a time, weekly or even monthly publications could ruminate at length about important topics without being stale. Daily newspapers closed that gap considerably as our world galloped toward its electronic era of instant communication about any topic in the universe.

So, by the time you read the musings that follow, events may have transpired -- no, likely will have transpired -- to make them out of date.

But here goes anyway.

First, North Korea.

The hostilities on the Korean peninsula were my very first first-hand exposure to war, even though I was reminded again and again that we were engaged in a police action, not a war. When you are a kid, dead soldiers and bombs equal a war. Period.

I had a hero during the Korean Conflict. He was the handsome son of my mother's best friend, and he was a pilot during that war. We got updates on Bobby Lee every time we visited Clara, and there was that large, framed photograph on the table in the living room of a smiling Bobby Lee decked out in his uniform.

Following the war through Bobby Lee's real-life experiences was like having a front-row seat, and we hung on every bit of information Clara passed along.

When the ceasefire ended the fighting in Korea, Bobby Lee came back to Missouri and became a flight instructor in St. Louis, an unlikely place to meet your demise after Korea. But, as I recall, Bobby Lee was making a landing at Lambert Airport when, through miscommunication or other factors I'm not aware of, a commercial plane came down on top of the small plane Bobby Lee was flying. A tragic accident had accomplished what the North Koreans tried -- but failed -- to do.

So whenever the Korean War comes up, that's my most vivid memory: Bobby Lee, the hero pilot, snuffed from this planet way too soon in his short life.

Everyone will have opinions on President Trump's sit-down with Chairman Kim in Singapore. I'm glad he did. It's time we stop formulating foreign policy based on snubs or favors (usually large quantities of cash). Never stop talking, that's my motto.

If Kim turns out to be a fraud like so many Americans think, then we're really no worse off than before the meeting, are we? And if this is the start of a genuine peace process, the whole world wins, right?

Next, beauty pageants.

It was always fun to watch the Miss America or Miss U.S.A. pageants, the part where contestants are asked supposedly weighty questions. The fun came from hearing some really bizarre answers, the kind of responses that quickly became jokes.

Well, those days are over. And to underscore that point, the "beauty" is being taking out of the beauty pageant.

I'm not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but what, exactly, is left of these pageants? If there are no swimsuits, won't the deep-thought topical questions be seen as minimizing women's intelligence?

So, if you don't have beauty or brains, what's left?

Just wondering.

Next, Missouri's new governor.

Mike Parson seems to have a steady hand on Missouri's tiller in the transition from the governor we elected to the governor who was elected to a job whose only real duty is to step into the top office when it is vacated.

In his public utterances, Parson is careful to make a lot of conciliatory comments, almost to the point of endless apologizing for a leadership mess he did not create.

While a "fresh start" makes a good sound bite, the speech of meaningful leadership goes to the heart of the real issues that affect all Missourians. It all boils down to how legislators and voters choose to spend the state's dollars. Governor Parson can have a big impact on this. If Missourians want decent highways and bridges, for example, we have to buck up and vote for the wherewithal to pay for them.

Let's hear some championing of real issues that go way beyond a fresh start.

Please.

Finally, I need to get this off my chest: Who the heck thought up quinoa?

This is one of those dietary fads that come along every so often to ruin perfectly good food. I would rank quinoa (which no one pronounces correctly until corrected by a food-fad snob) right up there with fried eggs atop every conceivable entree.

Just wait. There is some super-bright entrepreneur out there ready to spring another food fad on us: sawdust. I don't know how that will work out, but believe me, once sawdust makes its mark, you will be considered a food dummy if you don't eat it up.

Really? Is this the best we can do?

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.