I come from something relatively rare: an old Washington family — I mean, an old Washington, D.C., family. (I guess old Washington State families are rare too.) Washington is a transient town, or at least it used to be: People came, served in government, then left. The Nordlingers have been there since 1865 (not in government — almost never in government). Why am I boring you with this? I saw a headline on Drudge: “Multiple Roof Collapses Around Region.” This provoked a memory. A terrible, terrible snowstorm in 1922 caused the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre to collapse. About 100 people were killed. According to my grandmother, everyone claimed, for years, to have been there the night before.