For this modern-day journey aboard a comfortable cruise ship, leaving port late next week, Bradlee's son will no doubt get a rare first-hand account of this country's long and bloody battle against the Japanese.
Beyond that important history lesson, "I thought it would be fun," says the editor, who will write about the experience for the New Yorker.
ACRU VS. ACLU
The Supreme Court decision upholding a federal law allowing the government to withhold federal funding from universities that deny military recruiters the same access given to all other job recruiters is being applauded by Bob Carleson, chairman and chief executive officer of the American Civil Rights Union.
The ACRU, we might point out, is new to Washington, but not the constitutional debate, having had its headquarters in San Diego until this month.
Carleson, who authored welfare-reform initiatives while serving under President Reagan, had filed an amicus brief siding with the government in the high-profile case, decided by a unanimous 8-0 vote.
"The complaining professors and academics who pushed the case, and the ACLU that had sued the government, need to understand that the decision is a victory for those who believe in freedom of expression and freedom of association," he says.
The ACRU, which calls itself a nonpartisan educational civil rights organization dedicated to protecting fundamental rights and liberties, was started in 1998 to counter the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACRU's policy board includes former Attorney General Edwin I. Meese III and former Judge Robert H. Bork.
IN TIME FOR EASTER
"We'll have egg on our face come November," warns Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican, who draws his colleagues' attention to a $1.35 million pork project he discovered in the 2006 Agriculture Department appropriations bill - for the pasteurization of shell eggs in Michigan.
TENDER TIMES
As one eloquent White House correspondent observed this week, when President Bush and his guest retired for lunch, "a few snowflakes began to fall on tender shoots pressing the emergence of spring in the Rose Garden."
Not to worry.
First lady Laura Bush, despite the current blast of cold weather, assures us that the annual White House Spring Garden Tour is just around the corner - to be held this year on two dates: from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 1 and from noon to 4 p.m. April 2.
The tours have been a yearly tradition since first lady Pat Nixon opened the garden gates to the public in 1972. "Visitors are invited to view the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, Rose Garden, Children's Garden and South Lawn of the White House while military bands perform from a White House balcony," the White House says.
The gardens are open to everybody, but free tickets are required and will be distributed (one ticket per person on a first-come, first-served basis) by the National Park Service at the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion, 15th and E streets, on both tour days starting at 8 a.m.
NOT SO COLD
"Lovely, lovely spring. It takes a cold heart indeed not to love the springtime." - Sen. Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, welcoming springtime to the nation's capital.
BINOCULARS, SIR?
We've written numerous times that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is an avid angler. Now he's being asked to hang up his prized fishing pole and take up another hobby.
Such as?
"Hiking, bird-watching, kayaking or tennis," Erin Edwards, of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, suggests to The Beltway Beat.
PETA has just sent a letter to Justice Scalia saying that "hundreds" of scientists have concluded that fish are smart animals that feel pain in the same way other animals do.
"Fish are intelligent, interesting individuals who lead complex lives," says Edwards, who quotes noted marine biologist Sylvia Earle as saying: "I wouldn't deliberately eat a grouper any more than I'd eat a cocker spaniel."
Speaking of which, says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk, "If Justice Scalia treated cats or dogs the way he treats fish, he would end up in court, but on the other side of the bench."