Good news, folks! I think I got a stumper here for everyone today: In a (newly-discovered) speech, MT mentions a few of the hot cultural topics of the time (around March 1882 or so). One of them in the list is: "James G. Blaine and the obelisk." Blaine, senator from Maine, ran for president in 1884, and the obelisk may be the "Cleopatra's Needle" erected in Central Park, NY, around that time, or possibly it refers to the Washington Monument (?). Maybe Blaine dedicated the obelisk in Central Park, but I am not running that fact down. What might be the popularly understood connection of the two? Harold K. Bush Saint Louis University