Prize and prejudice

Published 5:56 pm Friday, October 11, 2013

Eyes on the prize: An international chemical weapons watchdog was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, bringing attention to recent efforts to eliminate the stockpile of such weapons in Syria. Many Nobel watchers had predicted the prize would instead go to Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old girl who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban, yet continued to speak out for the education of girls.

The peace prize has been won by others with less to recommend them (cough, Henry K., cough), but Malala, after all, is young and hasn’t even become Pakistan’s prime minister yet.

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Liberty for rent: New York will pay $61,600 a day to reopen the Statue of Liberty. And Arizona also will pay to staff and reopen Grand Canyon National Park.

Congress better solve the government shutdown soon before everybody figures out we like the substitute teacher better than our regular teacher.

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Don’t know much about history: On this day in 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.

Unfortunately, Columbus was forced to return to his boat; the Bahamian Congress, in a budget struggle with the president, shut down the islands’ government and closed the national beaches.

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