17 June—It was on this day in 1994 that the FIFA World Cup soccer games began, held in the United States for the very first time. And you can bet that all the non-American players, officials, and spectators had a much better time than they’re having this year under Donald Trump’s second reign of terror.

Clearly not a fan of football with a round rather than pointed (and thus misnamed) ball, no helmets and only minimal other body protection, and a continuously running clock with no team-called breaks, O.J. Simpson on the very same day led a televised motorcade of a score of California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles Police Department cars on State Route 91. In actual fact, it was O.J.’s pal and NFL teammate A.C. Cowlings who was driving—his own 1993 Bronco, which was a twin of O.J.’s. And O.J., in the back seat, was holding a gun to A.C.’s head. Do you wonder why the guys had identical Broncos?

And do you wonder why so many cops joined in that vehicle chase and delight in joining others? Well, the rozzers claim it’s to handle contingencies, safely deal with the suspect or suspects, and coordinate tactical measures like roadblocks.

One example is what the police call “tactical containment,” using multiple cars to box in a fleeing vehicle or block highway exits and street intersections. But you wonder how they’re going to do either of those things when the fuzz are following—behind—the fleeing vehicle—where the fleeing vehicle has been rather than where it’s going.

In other reminiscence, then, on this day in 1825 the Marquis de Lafayette, by that time an ancient 67, having survived the vile French Revolution, and the last surviving major general from the American Revolutionary War (having been appointed to that rank at the age of 19 by commander-in-chief Lieutenant General George Washington) laid the cornerstone for the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston, which had been fought 50 years earlier, mostly on Breed’s Hill. Lafayette was on his farewell tour of the grateful nation, having been invited over by President James Monroe.

Lafayette died back in Paris at 76 of pneumonia, after catching a severe cold in a rain of terror . . .