Wednesday
A beautiful, really amazingly beautiful afternoon here in Rancho Mirage. We have a grapefruit tree right outside the window of my office not far from the swimming pool. The pool itself is glittering in the sun. Of course, it is just as warm in Chicago today as it is in the desert, but that’s why we fight Global Warming every day.

The phone rang. It was “L”, the 17-year-old son of dear friends in Pasadena. L is a star student at a prestige day school in the L.A. area, taking five AP classes and studying night and day. He keeps me posted on his college application process.

“I got into the University of California at San Diego,” he said happily.

“Really great,” said I.

“I hear it’s a big party school,” he said, laughing merrily.

“Not as much as the one in Santa Barbara, from what I hear,” I told him, “although what would I know?”

“I was admitted to the Earl Warren College of Public Policy at UCSD,” said L, “and that’s great because I want to go into public policy.”

“Very good. May I ask, do you know who Earl Warren was?” I asked him.

“Uhmmm, no, I don’t,” said L. “I’ve been meaning to look that up since I applied but I never had time.”

“I see,” I said. We all know how long it takes to look these things up on the Internet. “Well, would you like to know?”

“Yes,” said L. “Very much.”

“He was Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court from the early to mid-fifties until the end of the sixties, very roughly,” I said. “He was probably the most important Supreme Court Chief Justice since the Civil War. Among many other huge decisions, he led the decision to outlaw school segregation by race.”

There was a long delay on the other end of the phone. “I’ve read about ‘The Warren Court,'” said L. “Did he have something to do with that?”

“Yes, he was that Warren,” I said.

“Wow,” he said.

L has yet to hear from Harvard and Stanford.

The swimming pool looked great. We live in a gated community. Judgment Day is coming but it’s not here yet. I think I’ll swim now.