I’m sorry about missing yesterday. It couldn’t be helped. Speaking of yesterday, here’s an old cartoon that alludes to the era being discussed after Monday’s post, roughly the late 50s and early 60s. Remember The Bomb? Nostalgia is a funny thing, isn’t it? We lived with the threat of simultaneous incineration of our major cities (as did our geopolitical opposition), but a threat so serious seemed to put all other problems in perspective. It was as if, in an overarching sense, it was all we had to worry about. Of course, it wasn’t, but now it seems that we live in a constant state of nervous exhaustion, and we’re not even sure why—or maybe we could name a hundred reasons. No, I’m not advocating an overt return to a policy of Mutually Assured Destruction. I think the reduction of the threat of global nuclear war is one of the best developments of my lifetime. I just thought we’d feel a little better about things.