COLUMBUS: For a while last week the war was going pretty smooth; gasoline dropped to $1.30. But tonight it was back up to $1.60, so perhaps our optimism was a bit too high.

We watch this war too much like a basketball game, where our whole disposition changes in an instant depending on who has the ball and who scored last. These folks saying the war should have been over in a week are the same ones that yelled at their microwave because it took more than two minutes to cook supper.

Give the Generals a chance to make a few mistakes, on both sides, and just wait and see who adjusts the best. The diplomats had this war all to themselves for 12 years, and you see what a mess they made of it. You can’t expect the marines to clean it up in 12 days.

A week or so ago I was over in Lewis County, West Virginia. I went to a pancake and sausage supper Saturday night, all you could eat, with butter and maple syrup. It was held at Horner, in an old historic school building, one with 2 classrooms at the front and a slightly bigger room at the back with a stage at one end so it could be used as an auditorium or lunchroom or even a small gym in a pinch. They had live bluegrass and gospel music, and I want you New Yorkers to hear this, a ticket to the whole shebang was only $4.00.

Nobody could ask for more freedom than that.

Historic quotes from Will Rogers: (on the value of an Air Force)

“If we were told tomorrow that the future and the safety of our country depended on football and athletics, why everybody the whole country over would be out practicing and all excited about it. But when any sane person absolutely knows that the success of the next war is in the air, why they just drag along and think somebody is kidding ’em.” WA #227, April 17, 1927

“I tell you any experiment that is being made in the air is not a waste of time or money. Our defense (and) offense have got to come from the air.” WA #492, May 29, 1932