Last evening, I watched a few episodes of “The Civil War,” Ken Burns’ masterpiece documentary. Did you realize that we’re coming up on the sesquicentennial of that madness? If you’re of a certain age, you’ll be asking yourself, “Now, wait: didn’t we just have the Civil War centennial?” If you visit here much at all, you know I’m a southerner. At the time of the centennial events, I was growing up in Alabama, and you literally could stand in my backyard and throw a rock into Georgia. The centennial was a big deal. Of course, it was treated as a four-year carnival, a pageant celebrating the good things about the Confederate States of America, which tells you right there all you need to know about the intellectual honesty of the enterprise. If there are any events attached to the passing of 150 years—and I’m not saying there should be—I hope we do a little better this time around, especially in my neck of the woods.

Congratulations to you Packers fans! Well, I was watching the game with one eye. After all, I’d seen “The Civil War” about 50 times. Maybe it is hard for us southerners to forget.