Jun 30, 2016 3 min read

A few observations on the news this week:

• Most Britons – both those who voted in favor of leaving the European Union and those who opposed it – are feeling the effects of a tremendous hangover. They may not be lying in their beds past noon with pounding heads, but they have been sickened by the plummeting value of their currency and embarrassed by their behavior while under the influence of intoxicating rhetoric.

Leaders of the Leave campaign are already backtracking on their promises to pump revenue into the national health-care system and to sharply curb immigration. Recession looms. Many who voted for Britain to exit are feeling what’s being called voter’s remorse. Meanwhile, those who voted to remain are feeling the same kind of disgust a wife might experience at the drunken antics of her husband.

The moral of this story: Don’t drink and vote; think and vote.

• National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” program interviewed voters in Columbus, Ohio, earlier this week. One woman, a supporter of Bernie Sanders, was asked who she might vote for in November, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Her answer, given with a sigh of resignation: “I’d rather eat chicken nuggets than scorpions.”

• Trump campaigned in Monessen earlier in the week. His supporters outnumbered protesters, and one of them was quoted by this newspaper as saying, “Donald Trump seems to be the only person with the initiative to bring the country back to where it used to be.” Trump has, indeed, vowed to do just that. We caution, however, that what America used to be 50 years ago was more than robust coal and steel industries and high-paying union jobs. We were also a nation torn by labor strikes, race riots, rampant inflation and anti-war protests. Politics was just as polarized, the welfare system was out of control and cities were terrorized by violent crime.

In many regards, we should be grateful that America is not what it used to be.

• The University of Pittsburgh plans to expand beer sales at its football games at Heinz Field starting this season. Previously, only those fans sitting in the club area and suites could buy beer. Pitt now joins 34 other college and universities that have realized the potential for more revenue through alcohol sales. Beer sales could raise more than $500,000 for the program, Athletic Director Scott Barnes said.

The vast majority of colleges and universities still prohibit beer sales at football games, the thinking being that selling alcohol at school activities, where many of those in attendance are students under the legal drinking age, is inappropriate. The only spirit permitted is school spirit. Besides, too many of those students already come to the games drunk; there’s no sense in encouraging them further.

But there is definitely a trend developing here. The differences between professional and collegiate Division I football are evaporating. Someday, the “student athletes” will be drawing salaries instead of attending classes, and the atmosphere in their stadiums will be indistinguishable from that of the pros. Too bad.