The war that was supposed to end all wars

Despite my present dismay for the country of my birth, I remain captivated by U.S. history. But "my" periods—that is, the periods I've written about, and those I find most intriguing — have always been the 1930s and the 1960s/1970s.

Tonight, however, I felt lucky to catch the second half of an absorbing PBS documentary (honest! that's not an oxymoron!) about Woodrow Wilson, the "Great War," and the failed League of Nations. This has fed my growing obsession with the period 1914-1920. So, too, have other chance encounters in popular culture. Over Christmas, I read Margaret Atwood's remarkable The Blind Assassin, which is partially set in that period. On New Year's Eve, we watched Gods and Monsters, which turned out to have a World War I sub-plot. And I recently obtained (but have not yet screened) a copy of "Iron-Jawed Angels", about the circa-1919 women's suffrage movement.

Meanwhile, A Very Long Engagement is showing at our neighborhood's little theatre this week. Three guesses where Adam and I will be tomorrow night...