“The Good Old Days”

I see cannibals munchin' a missionary luncheon
The years may have flown but the memory stays …

— from "Those Were the Good Old Days," in Damn Yankees.

From the BBC:

The residents of a Fiji village have apologised to the family of an English Christian missionary who was eaten by tribespeople 136 years ago.

Thomas Baker's descendants, joined by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and 600 people, attended a tribal ceremony in Nabutautau.

The local inhabitants believe their village has been suffering bad luck ever since the cannibalism incident in 1867, and hope saying sorry will help their fortunes.

And now that the people of Nabutautau have apologized and promised not to do it again, we can all join in wishing them the best of luck breaking that 136-year-old curse.

This story did remind me of the Damn Yankees song quoted above. That song, by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, also contains these unfortunate lyrics:

I see Indians draggin' an empty covered wagon
When scalping the settlers was the latest craze …

In the production I was in a few years back we changed those lines to:

I see settlers with flintlocks, bearing blankets of smallpox
When slaught'ring the natives was the latest craze …

Just figured I'd toss that out there on the off chance someone reading this someday finds themselves in a production of this fine old chestnut. (I can't help you with the cigarette trick, though. Never did get the hang of that.)