Today, my Impromptus is a journal, an Oslo journal, depicting the sights and sounds of that city (or some of them). A reader writes,

Enjoyed your photos. You have one of a girl jumping on a trampoline in a public space. What, there are no personal-injury lawyers in Norway? No billion-kroner lawsuits?

You know, I have noticed this about Europe, over the years — all of Europe, from Scandinavia down to Greece or Sicily. Once upon a time, I thought of Europe as an uptight nanny state, while America was the home of rugged individualism and “Don’t Tread on Me,” appropriate to our wide-open spaces.

But often, I’ll be in Europe, going down some treacherous staircase or something, and I’ll think, “They let you do this? Where the hell is OSHA? We could use a little nannyism just now, please.”

(But you know what’s great? I mention this in my journal today: being able to open a gol-dang hotel window. We are seldom able to do that in America, as I’ve ranted in column after column.)

Before continuing with the next letter, I would like to pause for a language note. Above, I wrote “depicting the sights and sounds” — but can you depict sounds? I’ll get back to you on that . . .

Yesterday, I had a post about George Bush — Bush 41, Bush the Elder — on the occasion of the centennial of his birth. A reader writes,

Thanks for the tribute to GHWB. He was a great man, and needless to say a paragon of decency, the likes of whom are largely absent from the scene.

As you say, he was a CIA director, and one of the best loved. Find some statements and stories here. He visited CIA for the last time in January 2016, not long before I retired from CIA service. Among my last projects was helping to produce a video tribute, which has since been released: here. Please excuse any flaws, as we did it in haste.

In a recent column, I had a note on a decision by Harvard: The university has decided that it will no longer require a “DEI statement” in the hiring of faculty. (Those initials stand for “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”) I wrote, “Sometimes, when you take a step back, you take a step forward.”

A reader writes, “You have reminded me of one of my favorite thinkers.” Then he quotes C. S. Lewis:

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road, and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.

And so on. Great stuff.

In a different column, I mentioned seeing a T-shirt — a T-shirt I wasn’t so crazy about. It said, “Alcoholics don’t run in my family, they drive.” But a reader brightened my mood, considerably:

I thought of the classic Martin Mull song, “Noses Run in My Family.” (And Fernwood 2 Night is still the greatest TV show from the 1970s.)

The song in question. Thank you, one and all.