SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET: 

WILL UNITED BE ALLOWED TO EXIST? – FROM SMITHSONIAN:    Over the weekend, a United Airlines passenger named Dexter was getting ready to board a flight from Newark to Los Angeles. He had his ticket ready. He was, incidentally, looking pretty great. But Dexter was not allowed to board the plane. Dexter, you see, is a peacock.  According to Daniella Silva of NBC News, the peacock, which is reportedly an emotional support animal, and his human were turned away from their flight at the Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday. United Airlines told Silva in a statement that the bird “did not meet guidelines for a number of reasons, including its weight and size.”  I love animals.  I'm all for peacocks.  Peacocks have fought in all our wars.  But I will not get on a plane and sit next to a peacock.  That is my feeling.  Call me a birdist pig. 

ANOTHER GREAT MOMENT IN EDUCATION – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  A New York high school has canceled a production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” after a student activist group complained about a white student being cast in a lead role.  The school now will be putting on an alternative production.
Members of Ithaca High School’s Students United Ithaca — all five of them — got together and wrote up a letter and list of demands after the role of Esmeralda went to a Caucasian peer.  “It shows you that theater wasn’t made for you,” said Maddi Carroll, a member of the Students United group who is African-American. “And it shows you that, if you can’t get the parts that are written for you, what parts are you going to get?”  Students United’s letter conceded that the student cast as Esmeralda “is a stellar actor, singer, and dancer” and that any production would be “lucky to have her.”  However, it added: “Our concern is not with her, but with the fact that in terms of demographics, she is the wrong choice for this role.”  What a sick idea.  The most talented actress is denied the role because she is the wrong color, and these social justice warriors (choke) say they're not concerned about her.  What a terrible lesson this sends.

THE UNDERGROUND WORLD – FROM BBC:  Researchers have found more than 60,000 hidden Maya ruins in Guatemala in a major archaeological breakthrough.  Laser technology was used to survey digitally beneath the forest canopy, revealing houses, palaces, elevated highways, and defensive fortifications.  The landscape, near already-known Maya cities, is thought to have been home to millions more people than other research had previously suggested.  The researchers mapped over 810 square miles (2,100 sq km) in northern Peten.  Archaeologists believe the cutting-edge technology will change the way the world will see the Maya civilisation.  "I think this is one of the greatest advances in over 150 years of Maya archaeology," said Stephen Houston, Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at Brown University.  The researchers also found 6,000 e-mails from Hillary Clinton and 45,000 Chicago voters.

February 2,  2018