SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

AN ANNIVERSARY – FROM THE MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL:   Today is the 100th anniversary of one of Memphis's far-reaching contributions to the nation: The modern grocery store.  The aggressive salesman of wholesale groceries, Clarence Saunders, opened his first Piggly Wiggly at 79 Jefferson on Sept. 6, 1916, with great fanfare.  Until then, shoppers walked to a front counter, told the clerk what they wanted, and the clerk went to the back to fetch the food items.  Saunders created the more efficient way of giving the shoppers a basket and letting them serve themselves as they walked along shelves full of food products before leaving through a check-out counter.  I will think of Mr. Saunders with great reverence tomorrow as I visit my local Stop and Shop, having run out of ice cream.  Breyer's chocolate chip is on sale.

ENOUGH, ENOUGH! – FROM THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE:   George Washington, the guy on the quarter, could soon be facing the ax in San Francisco as surely as his fabled cherry tree.  The president of the San Francisco school board thinks it’s time to consider renaming schools that bear the names of slave owners — including Washington and his friends and fellow presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe.
Board President Matt Haney said Tuesday he will introduce a resolution before the board this month to clarify the rules for renaming San Francisco schools with an eye to encouraging the communities at Washington High School, along with Jefferson and Monroe elementary schools, to consider whether they want to make a change...“We need to have a conversation about this,” Haney said. “Especially at George Washington High School. We have school names in San Francisco that are not relevant or meaningful or inspire pride.”  Yes, Haney said, the name Washington — also shared by a state, the U.S. capital and a likeness on a dollar bill — might very well be such a name.  Haney sounds like the kind of idiot they get in San Francisco government.  You know, one of these days an honest reporter will take a look at some of the new, politically correct names on public buildings...and examine the lives behind those names.  I'm sure that reporter will find plenty of distressing details.

A BALTIMORE WEEKEND – FROM THE BALTIMORE SUN:   Violence in Baltimore came in bunches over the Labor Day weekend, with four triple-shootings breaking out in the city.  Twenty-two people were shot from Friday afternoon through Monday night, police said. At least three were killed, and four more were in critical condition Monday.  The victims included a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old. Police said a gunman left a dice game disgruntled on Saturday and opened fire indiscriminately on a crowd in Latrobe Homes.  The oldest victim was a 62-year-old woman, who sought refuge in a Wilkens Avenue pizza shop after a shooting claimed the life of a 29-year-old man.  T.J. Smith, the chief spokesman for the Police Department, said police needed the community's help to identify the shooters and take them off the streets.  He focused on the alleged dice game shooter.  I wonder if the Black Lives Matter crowd will find, in Baltimore, any lives that matter.

September 6, 2016