h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I agree it is just as fair to remember the good things people say and do as the not so good things people say and do and vice versa.

Franklin D. Roosevelt appears to have been no better than Theo:
"It is not clear whether Hitler snubbed Owens ... Yet there is no doubt at all about the hurt inflicted on Owens by the neglect of US President Franklin D Roosevelt ... Owens received no telegram of congratulations for his record-breaking haul of medals. On his return, there was no invitation to the White House to shake hands with the President. That honour was reserved for white Olympians. Owens even had to attend a non-presidential reception in his honour with his mother at the Waldorf Astoria using the goods lift."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/race/how-america-snubbed-jesse-owens/

Now, that's rude. I doubt Eleanor approved.

Eleanor Roosevelt esigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution over their refusal to let Marian Anderson sing. Ms Anderson performed at the Lincoln Memorial instead:

http://www.npr.org/2014/04/09/298760473/denied-a-stage-she-sang-for-a-nation

Recognising the truth is never a bad idea - it saves us from 'alternative facts'.

TR did not have a mute button. He was the man in the arena, doing everything on a grand scale. Shakespeare might have been fascinated by this combination of great and terrible qualities.

TR did invite Booker T. Washington to White House, an epoch marking event.

Paul Krugman's opinion, written days before Trish Regan's - er - words. As Krugman himself points out it probably says much more about the rest of the World (the US included) than about Denmark.

And I love that he starts with a Monty Python reference

http://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/05/opinion/notes-on-a-butter-republic.html

One more from 16 August:

http://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/opinion/denmark-socialism-fox.html?action=click&module=Associated&pgtype=Article&region=Footer&contentCollection=Paul%20Krugman

I like the link's reference to rural cooperatives. Some companies are adopting the cooperative business model -- Ocean spray, for instance. Sharing corporate profits avoids having a few elites benefit inordinately from production.

The supermarket where I do most of my shopping, Winco, is employee owned.

A growing trend that somewhat reminds me of Mack Reynolds' studies in his science fiction stories of 'people's capitalism' as an alternative to social welfare.

I own my local supermarket. Together with 1.699.999 others

The cooperative movement quickly became big in Denmark since the first union was founded in rural Thisted in 1866. It was named Thisted Workers Association and interestingly enough, it was founded by the local boss of the priests in the area. ( I don't know the exact title in English but his position is between the priests and the bishop (we have ten) in our lutheran protestantic state church.) He must of course have been some kind of closet communist

Most cooperatives were founded by farmers, though. They built dairies, slaughterhouses and freezing houses. And organised the export of bacon and butter, chiefly to the UK

I meant 1,699,999 others, of course. I keep forgetting you use commas where we use periods

You may still be disoriented now that you've come out of Hotblack Desiato mode. It may take a while to reorient yourself to our living-based culture.

You may be more right than you know

It was a wild guess.

Another wild guess is that you were alive all the time.

I'm taking the 5th on that last remark.

Not for tax reasons but because of something similar

I have the kindliest of intentions, Pierce. I don't mean to poke about in whatever is happening in your life....

And I'm glad that you weren't really doing whatever it was for tax reasons. In my country, if you are dead, then your heirs get all your stuff, and if you become alive again you aren't likely to get any of it back.

That's why I never informed my heirs about my temporary passing

That sounds tricky. Over here, it's hard to keep a little detail like death out of the newspapers and social media.

The secret is to keep schtumm about your passing

Later they will have problems proving you did

Well, obviously you won't be seen in public while you're dead. This will require that you invent a cover story to explain your absence.

"I took a nap. A long nap. Case closed!"

If that's working for you, good! .