Programming note: If you missed this weekend's audio episode of Steyn's Song of the Week on Serenade Radio, you can catch the re-run at 9pm Thursday GMT, which is 4pm North American Eastern. Wherever you are on the planet, simply click the button at top right here.
In our monthly anthology edition of The Hundred Years Ago Show, the messy aftermath of the Great War continues, with roaring inflation in Germany, the assassination of a Turkish Grand Vizier, and representatives of Siberia's new "Far Eastern Republic" arriving in America to seek Washington's help. As to the war's victors, is India's cool reception to the Prince of Wales a portent of tomorrow? And, closer to home, will Irish republicans accept dominion status?
Plus: the first penalty shot in hockey history, the shaming of American draft dodgers, a suicide in the Potomac, a blasphemy prosecution in London, and the last notes of a great composer. Click above to listen.
Thank you for all your kind comments on The Hundred Years Ago Show and other programming. Allen and Dina, members of The Mark Steyn Club from Oklahoma, write:
Dear Mark,
We loved your Christmas 2021 program, Lessons and Carols, and think Hugh Martin would have loved it too. We always look forward to your Serenade Radio Song of the Week. The three Christmas songs you featured were uplifting, especially 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.' 'Keeping up to date with the past' helps us withstand the dreariness of the present. If Jack Buchanan singing 'And Her Mother Came, Too' can't make a person smile, nothing can.
Thanks to you and all of your associates for making this planet a richer, saner, more charming and exotic place. We wish you all a Happy Boxing Day and Happy 2022 (if that is possible.)
You're quite right about "And Her Mother Came Too", Allen and Dina. I hope I get an opportunity to play it this coming year.
As you know, I've long held that many of the problems that beset us arise from the years after the Great War. Thus many of the news stories of 1921 are reflected indirectly in the headlines a hundred years later. But there are also less freighted reports - of forgotten novelties and landmark inventions, of sporting and artistic triumphs, and the passing of the once famous. Oh, and as Allen and Dina note, plenty of period music - many songs that are still sung, but played in the versions that first made them hits.
The Hundred Years Ago Show started as a weekly feature of The Mark Steyn Show. It proved so popular that we now reprise it as a monthly omnibus version on the last Sunday of each month. And, as with our audio adventures, video poetry and musical specials, we've created a special Hundred Years Ago home page in handy Netflix-style tile format to enable you to set your time machine for the precise month you're in the mood for. We also have a tile-format page for the telly version of The Mark Steyn Show.
The Hundred Years Ago Show is a special production of The Mark Steyn Club. As I always say, Club membership isn't for everyone, but if you're interested you can find more information here.
