Anthematics

Breitbart complained about the ghastly Coca-Cola entry in the Superb Owl commercial stakes:

Executives at Coca Cola thought it was a good idea to run a 60 second Super Bowl ad featuring children singing "America the Beautiful" – a deeply Christian patriotic anthem whose theme is unity – in several foreign languages. The ad also prominently features a gay couple....When the company used such an iconic song... to push multiculturalism down our throats, it's no wonder conservatives were outraged.

I'm not very clear on how deeply Christian the anthem is—God comes into it only "shedding grace" over the fruited plains and alabaster cities, as if He were a long-haired [jump]

Václav Havel

Among the things that really never make me cry: obituaries of famous people, even those I admire a lot, and sopranos, even great ones, singing rock songs. However during Havel's radio obituary this morning, I felt such a wave of grief, at around 1992 in Silvia Poggioli's potted biography (Czechs and Slovaks break up, Havel leaves office for the first time), and then again listening to this:

Look for Havel's face in the audience at around 2:38, so delighted!