WHATEVER HAPPENED TO NATIONAL BROTHERHOOD WEEK? LET’S START CELEBRATING WORLD WAR THREE TODAY SINCE WE WON ‘T HAVE TIME, LATER.

Way back in the dark ages, the third week in February (an otherwise dreary and neglected month) was designated National Brotherhood Week. As designated special weeks go, it was never a big hit with the general public. In the 1980s, it disappeared. Probably because it failed to sell greeting cards which is probably the point of such created events.

The National Conference for Christians and Jews (NCCJ) came up with the idea of National Brotherhood Week in 1934. Given the current political climate, maybe we can agree more brotherhood year-round would be an improvement. Sadly, we no longer have even that one, measly week.

February is Black History Month these days. Movie channels run films featuring non-white stars.

The guy who took it seriously — even way back in the old days — was Tom Lehrer. He taught math at Hahvid (Harvard, if you aren’t from around here). He didn’t write a lot of songs since he, till his dying day (which hasn’t occurred yet — he’s alive and living in California), thought of himself as a math teacher who wrote silly songs rather than as an entertainer.

Despite this unfair self-assessment, I’ve always felt Tom got this particular holiday dead to rights. Ya’ think?

He got a lot of stuff right. Check him out on YouTube. He only wrote about 50 songs and most of them are posted in some video or other. Me? I own the CDs.

And because the news has been so … fraught … I thought I’d add a couple  more shockingly relevant songs.

My, how times have not really changed — except we really do have colored TV pretty much everywhere! Facebook and Twitter too.

Categories: Arts, Celebrities, Humor, Marilyn Armstrong, Music, Show Business, Wit

Tags: conversant, humor, Marilyn Armstrong, Music, National Brotherhood Week, Tom Lehrer, YouTube