Christopher Columbus

Near the end of 1992, it is easy to be surfeited with the telling and retelling, deconstructing, reconstructing, revising and politicizing of the story of Christopher Columbus. But 500 years after Columbus first set keel in the Caribbean, one prescient man seems to have had a sense of how to view the affair in a vision developed not in America but in Belgium, not in 1992 but in 1927.

As costumed dancers swirled exuberantly to ancient rhythms and first-time visitors traipsed through roomy new galleries, the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art came back to life Sunday, after a four-year, $12-million face lift.

Christopher Columbus' voyage to America in 1492 made history. But the 500th anniversary of his trek isn't making much of anything--certainly not money or consumer excitement. As Americans mark Columbus Day today, retailers--hoping that Columbus souvenirs would be as popular as those for the American Bicentennial and Statue of Liberty restoration--are sitting on warehouses full of unsold merchandise.

THE BIG DAY: Christopher Columbus discovered the New World 500 years ago today, but 277 years passed before the effect reached what is now Orange County. . . . Our Columbus was Spanish army Capt. Gaspar de Portola, who first set foot here July 22, 1769. . . . And Orange County's Queen Isabella was Jose de Galvez, ruler of what is now Mexico.

While everyone else is loving or loathing this Quincentenary Day, suppose, just suppose, that instead of stopping off in the Western Hemisphere, Columbus had followed Marco Polo as planned and sailed all the way to China. Forgetting for a moment the effect on Asia (chow mein pizza?), what would our world be like? There would be no Columbus Day, of course. Which matters little to the city of Berkeley, which has renamed the occasion Indigenous Peoples' Day.

The reputation of Christopher Columbus remains relatively untarnished 500 years after his arrival in the New World, according to an Associated Press poll showing that about two out of three Americans regard him as a hero. The anniversary of the Italian navigator's first voyage across the Atlantic has brought renewed scrutiny of the explorer's effect on the natives of the land he mistook for "the Indies."

The American public remains puzzled over the significance of the Columbus celebrations, and as this Oct. 12 marks the 500th anniversary of his first voyage, some are even suggesting that Columbus Day be deleted from the calendar altogether.

Not to be outdone by Christopher Columbus on the weekend commemorating Europe's first outreach to the Americas, Leif Ericson also had a moment in the sun Sunday. Just a day before the 500th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage to America in 1492, about 150 celebrators marched in this New England town to stake the Viking claim to being the first Europeans in North America.

How do you follow a string of high-profile projects such as starring in the critically acclaimed film "The Player," directing, writing and starring in another movie, "Bob Roberts," and hosting "Saturday Night Live"? When you're Tim Robbins, one of the hottest commodities in Hollywood, everyone's watching your next move. Well, the next move may come as a surprise. The 34-year-old Robbins ventures into new and unlikely territory today: writing, starring in and co-directing a satirical radio drama.