1. CHIEFS TO CELEBRATE SUPER BOWL WIN WITH PARADE: The Kansas City Chiefs—which President Trump wrongly tweeted was in Kansas in a congratulatory post he later deleted—will celebrate with a victory parade in the Missouri city on Wednesday. Kansas City Star: “The celebration will include a victory rally at Union Station about 1:30 p.m., shortly after the parade ends, the commission said. The victory rally stage will be in front of Union Station, with the National WWI Museum and Memorial hosting viewing opportunities on its north lawn. ‘For the first time in 50 years, our Kansas City Chiefs are bringing home the Vince Lombardi trophy, and we’re all excited to celebrate with our players and fans,’ Mayor Quinton Lucas said in the announcement. ‘We will cheer on the World Champion Kansas City Chiefs this Wednesday morning during our victory parade through downtown Kansas City. Thanks, Kansas City, for being such a great city and having such amazing fans!’” 2. WILL BREXIT BECOME A NATIONAL HOLIDAY IN BRITAIN?: Could January 31, the date Britain left the European Union, become a national holiday along the lines of Fourth of July in the U.S. or Bastille Day in France? The Atlantic: “If ever Britain needed its own day of national unity, it’s now. The past few years have proved incredibly divisive—not only threatening to tear apart relationships and families, but testing the very foundations of the country’s political system. January 31 is unlikely to be that day, though. ‘National days presuppose a lack of opposition, if not enthusiasm, from the majority,’ David Edgerton, a British historian and the author of The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth-Century History, told me. Creating a national day around an event that has so divided the country would do little to bring it together. If anything, Edgerton said, ‘doing something big would be counterproductive, because what it’s most likely to generate is a [counterprotest] that will actually be larger than any celebration [the government] might want to put on.’” 3. HARVARD'S HASTY PUDDING GROUP HONORS ELIZABETH BANKS: Harvard’s Hasty Pudding theater troupe chose actress and director Elizabeth Banks as its Woman of the Year and honored the Massachusetts native with a roast and a parade. WCVB: “[Banks] also threw some friendly barbs back at the troupe, which has made strides in recent years to better represent women in its productions. Last year was the first in which the troupe, considered the nation’s oldest collegiate theatrical organization, allowed women in the cast. Organizers said this year’s performance also boasts a majority female cast, a female writer, and female producers. ‘Hasty Pudding is one of those truly progressive institutions,’ Banks said. ‘You know it was founded, and then a mere 175 years later let ladies into the party.’” |