HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

Moira, now that she's been transplanted to the Midwest, is developing a broader sense of humor. She thinks this whole article is funny.

I, on the other hand, collapsed only when I read about Howard Dean's Yale career:

"The future Vermont governor showed a disdain for Yale politics and resigned from a fraternity order in a dispute over a coffee bar."

Sound familiar? It should.

"Dean got into a tense negotiation with the Episcopal Church, which owned land in the path's way. Dean won, but he still held a grudge against the church -- and not just the local diocese, but the entire denomination. He quit being an Episcopalian and became a Congregationalist. He acknowledged only a few months ago on national television that he had done so because of the bike-path dispute, although he has never publicly explained his motivation more deeply than that."

Coffee bars and bike paths. Such is the stuff of presidential candidates.