Well, friends, we made it to 2025. When I started writing these Weekly Comments in 1997, I had no idea these columns would last into the 28th year. We’re going through 5 Presidents (Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and soon, Donald Trump again).
In my first Weekly Comments, I ended with this Will Rogers quote, “A person learns in two ways: one is reading, the other is associating with smarter people.”
As I reread the Weekly Article it came from, I wish I had included a full paragraph, “I do hope I last long enough to reach your town. If it’s got a railroad and a Town Hall we will be there sooner or later. A Man only learns by two things, one is reading, and the other is association with smarter people. I don’t like to read and one can’t find the associates in New York. I am going out among the people whom New Yorkers call Rubes. But these people I am going out among are the people that just look at New Yorkers and laugh.” WA #147, Oct. 5, 1925
Interestingly, Will wrote his 665 Weekly Articles, 1922-1935, through 4 Presidents (Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt).
In football, the NFL and colleges are into the playoffs. The first 12-team NCAA college football playoff is down to 4: Penn State will play Notre Dame, and Texas plays Ohio State. Oddly, none of the 4 conference champions survived. The winners of these two games will play Jan. 20 for the championship, a few hours after Trump becomes President again. The NFL Super Bowl will be Feb. 9.
President-Elect Trump was ridiculed when he suggested we buy Greenland from Denmark because of its abundant natural resources. Lincoln got the same reaction when he suggested we buy Alaska from Russia.
Trump also said, half-jokingly, that Canada could become our 51st state. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was not amused despite Trump’s offer that he could be the Governor. Will Rogers discussed a similar plan a century ago and offered one of our border states as part of the deal. (see below)
Historic quote by Will Rogers: (on Canada)
“Now I have no idea but what we could take [Canada] over and make a paying proposition out of them, for the country now is supplying about everything we use in the way of raw materials. But I hate to interrupt a friendship that has been going on now pretty steady since the battle of Lake Erie. You see they don’t owe us and they still think we are pretty good neighbors, so if we can just keep from annexing them and keep from loaning them anything in the way of a government debt, why we ought to be friends for years to come.
Canada is principally an agricultural country and we raise more now than the farmers down home can sell for enough to put in the next year’s crop. About the only thing I can think of we could use it for would be a skating rink in the winter and we got such a poor class of skaters that we couldn’t hardly afford to maintain it just for that. Unless we could trade in Wisconsin on it some way, I can’t see any reason for annexing it. So I have advised against it.” WA #201, Oct. 17, 1926