Nov. 11, Veterans' Day, is the day tin 1918 the great powers ended World War I, a war America has almost forgotten. When I was growing up in the 1960s, it was only 20 years after World War II, and it was all over popular culture. We had dramas on TV like "Combat!" and "Rat Patrol," and comedies like "McHale's Navy" and in the theaters we had pictures like "The Longest Day," "The Great Escape," "King Rat," etc. World War II was alive. World War I was dead, forgotten. It was boring, and furthermore pointless. It was started over the shooting of some archduke in Sarajevo, and what American would care about that? And what did we care whether the Germans beat the French or the French beat the Germans? There are answers to those questions, but not very satisfying ones.

My dad, who was a teenager in Portland at the time, said it a great relief when the war was over. They celebrated four days early on the "False Armistice," and on Nov. 11 had to celebrate all over again.

Nov. 13 is another anniversary, as is noted on Historylink.org: the 160th anniversary of the landing in 1851 of the Denny Party at Alki Point--the first people from the United States to settle in Seattle. A reader calls and suggests that it be proclaimed "Seattle Day," and celebrated as such. Maybe, though it crowds Thanksgiving, and it is a gloomy time of year. If I were founding Seattle, I'd do it in the summer. But Denny did it on Nov. 13, and his act led to our town. Lift a stein to him.