Today's Tribune column: "Mourning in America, circa 1984."

Just think of the progress we've made. This year, I can drink Elector.

BAYLOR: Mourning in America, circa 1984

... It was one of those years — strike that; it was one of those decades. Whenever I was in my cups, that comfortably numb region conducive for enduring brain-dead patriotic platitudes and acute disgust with condescending Falwellian theocrats, and while toiling multiple jobs to accumulate enough money to travel somewhere in the world more civilized, I’d grimace, stare balefully at the date, and rationalize: Just four more years.