WASHINGTON (AP) — Late in a life lived unnervingly near the nuclear abyss, William J. Perry is on a mission to warn of a "real and growing danger" of nuclear doom.
The 88-year-old former defense secretary is troubled by the risks of catastrophe from the very weapons he helped develop. Atop his list: a nuclear terror attack in a major U.S. city or a shooting war with Russia that, through miscalculation, turns nuclear. A terrorist attack using a nuclear bomb or improvised nuclear device could happen "any time now – next year or the year after," he said in an interview with reporters earlier this month.
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?"
Isabella Stewart Gardner welcomed guests to her 15th-century-inspired Venetian styled palace for the first time on New Year's Eve 1903. Sipping champagne and eating donuts, the Boston Symphony Orchestra played while friends roamed the galleries of Fenway Court. Surrounded by Gardner's combined passions of art, gardens, intellect, and music the candlelit courtyard glowed. It's reasonable to assume the revelers toasted the New Year by singing Auld Lang Syne.
