I published the shots from the extraordinary Anselm Kiefer exhibit at the St. Louis Art Museum yesterday as a Lucky Strike extra because I knew I would have a lot to say after last night’s 65th high school reunion dinner. In fact, I really don’t. It was a fine dinner, with over 30 classmates and maybe 50 in all attending. But I don’t know that it was very noteworthy.

The class is politically diverse, if in other ways not so much, but politics seemed to play no role last night. One of the class rightwingers did shake my hand and told me it was nice to see me. I told him the same and he then said, “I guess that’s the only thing we agree on.” He was probably right. He is a very bright guy (truth is, he was number 2 and I was number 3 in the class), and lived up the street from me, but we were never really buddies

He was at MIT the four years I was at Harvard, and I don’t think we ever saw each other in Cambridge. He lives in Atlanta, and our only contacts the last decade or so have been on Facebook, and not particularly pleasant.

There was another rightwinger there, whose high school record was not MIT quality, who gave me the coldest “hi” I have ever received, and turned her face from me.

On the other hand, I sat next to an old and very good friend, whom I had not seen for 15 years. He is a podiatrist, still working full time. Just him and a staff of 13. Hearing about his practice, his sculpturing, his river house and his kids made the reunion worthwhile.

Other than that, a lot of pleasantries and nice, brief conversations with people I used to have nice, brief conversations with, and nods and smiles with others. But remember, I had seen 7 of these people the day before and spent yesterday afternoon with a few of them at the Art Museum.

Another highlight. One of my classmates became a United Airlines pilot and then leader of the United pilot’s union and then a board member of the airline’s parent company. He was on the emergency response team after the United plane crashed in Shanksville PA. He is of the firm belief that the plane did not crash because of a passenger revolt, but because the US military shot it down, purposely killing all on board, rather than let it fly into the Capitol. Anything else, he believes is a cover up.

After the museum visit and lunch yesterday, we and three others went to Crown Candy (famous St. Louis culinary landmark for ice cream) and one of them, friend and classmate, tripped on an uneven sidewalk while holding two cups of ice cream, lacerating his forehead, nose and one hand. We drove to St. Luke’s Urgent Care in Creve Coeur, where they promptly treated him. He missed the reunion dinner, but is planning on coming to the brunch today. He will be fine. But it did put a damper on the afternoon. BTW, I had black cherry ice cream. A+++++.

One more thing. I woke up this morning to a Washington Post editorial supporting the White House  ballroom.  The Post editorial board has been totally out of control recently, filled I believe with new people, as the Post has lost so many of their veteran reporters, but this might have been the dumbest of their many dumb and unnecessary editorials.

After I read the editorial on line, I decided to look at the comments. I read through the first 30 or so. Not one was supportive of the editorial, many focused on Jeff Bezos’ Amazon’s need to keep government contracts flowing, and about a third said they were canceling their subscription.

What a world we have created.