The world is, indeed, a many splendored place, as wonders and puzzles like the seventies, the daily content of fark.com and most of Japanese culture often reminds us. Today was rife with celebrity curiosities that made the front pages:

A seven thousand year old city was discovered, Jerusalem was smothered in snow, Rupert Murdoch’s NY Post endorsed Obama and Hillary Clinton threw a party for herself in honor of being the winner of a primary only she competed in after promising not to compete.

The first - the city in the desert - reminds us that the mysteries of the past will never cease to reveal themselves. As we develop from the past, our perspective transforms. And as we gain new eyes, we look back to discover new things, and change yet again. Most fascinating about this archaelogical marvel is that it may involve cultural elements that far post-date its original founding - Greek and Roman elements, meaning that it was likely in use, part of the known world from the dawn of civilization, for thousands of years, before it vanished.

“An electromagnetic survey revealed the existence in the Karanis region of a network of walls and roads similar to those constructed during the Greco-Roman period,” the council’s chief Zahi Hawwas said.

The remnants of the city are “still buried beneath the sand and the details of this discovery will be revealed in due course,” Hawwas said.

The remains date back to the Neolithic period between 5,200 and 4,500 BC.

Jerusalem, a place of extreme strive and extreme beauty, was blessed with snow. Snow in the desert may be explanable as one of the freak weather patterns climate change is inspiring, but on the objective face of it, it is a miracle of sorts in such profusion. For the temperate climb to be so plunged into winter has provided not only a rare pause in the bustle of the magical city of Solomon, but a touch of loveliness to the contested capital of the three faiths of the Book.

Men in long Arab robes pelted each other with snowballs in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and the West Bank city of Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian government, came to a standstill.

“I’m originally from Gaza where snow never falls,” said Bothaina Smairi, 28, who was out in Ramallah taking photographs. “The white snow is covering the old world and I feel like I am in a new world where everything is white, clean, and beautiful.”

Jerusalem’s Old City was coated in white. A few ultra-Orthodox Jews, wearing plastic bags over their hats to keep them dry, prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.

Another note for unity and hope despite the grim, poisonous past few years was struck as Barack Obama received an edorsement from the NY Post - former flagship newspaper of Rupert “FOX News” Murdoch. For me, this represents a rare altruism on the part of the paper, assuming it is sincere; a media outlet more dedicated to removing the contentious tone from public life rather than stoking it. Contrary to the obscenely impartial or provocatively biased coverage we’ve become accustomed to, the best journalism might be the most responsible kind, and the Post’s editorial seems to echo that long-lost sentiment:

Obama represents a fresh start.

His opponent, and her husband, stand for déjà vu all over again - a return to the opportunistic, scandal-scarred, morally muddled years of the almost infinitely self-indulgent Clinton co-presidency.

Does America really want to go through all that once again?

It will - if Sen. Clinton becomes president.

That much has become painfully apparent.

More painful in its clarity is that Clinton will not just be a repeat of the years before the Bush years, but of the Bush years as well. This is evidenced in her attempt to steal the election, a perfidious scheme far beyond just shutting the doors to caucus sites half an hour ahead of their closing time or dispensing lies about Barack Obama being a Muslim terrorist over e-mail that she celebrated last night. After swearing not to campaign in Florida, Clinton did, won the state, and is now trying to force the Democratic National Convention to recognize the delegates from that election.

It was a perfect reproduction of an actual victory speech, delivered at a perfectly ersatz celebration at a perfectly pretend location: a faux Italianate palace with lion sculptures, indoor fountains and a commanding view of Interstate 595. The Signature Grand (”Elegant Weddings and Grand Social Occasions”) was also holding receptions Tuesday night for a pediatric practice and for a group of optometry students, but the Clinton campaign was the biggest draw: It filled the Silver Palm Room, the Golden Palm Room and the Emerald Palm Room.

…Even some of the faithful in the hall doubted that the big margin for Clinton, flashed on a projection screen, was an accurate gauge of the race here. “Probably not,” said Eleanor Forte, on the outer rim of the celebration. “If they had campaigned here, it probably would have come out differently.”

That was a nuance the Clinton campaign was hoping to overlook as it sought retroactively to give weight to the Florida primary. “I am a gutter-ball bowler,” Clinton said as she campaigned Sunday night in the state in which she had pledged not to campaign. The remark, overheard by a Miami Herald reporter, was no doubt meant literally; she was standing outside Lucky Strike Lanes in Miami Beach. But in politics, too, Clinton has recently been putting some questionable rotation on the ball.

First came the South Carolina primary, in which she and her husband tried unsuccessfully to morph Barack Obama into Jesse Jackson. Then came word Sunday that she would fly here to celebrate her “victory” in the Florida primary — even though she and the other Democratic candidates long ago declared it null and void. She said she wanted restoration of the stripped delegates from disobedient Florida and Michigan (where Clinton, the only major candidate on the ballot, beat “uncommitted,” 55 percent to 40 percent).

In my opinion, breaking her promise not to run in those states should have had her tarred and feathered by the press for being a cheater. In my opinion, demanding that the delegates from those states should be recognized should result in her being ejected from any consideration as the nominee. In my opinion, any Democrat who refuses to see that this smacks of the kind of voter manipulation the Bush team was suspected of pulling in 2000 is morally vacant.

And thankfully, the world being a many splendored place, there may still be a chance for those many endorsements, these many stories of infamous deeds and the character of America’s virtue to be brought into play, and to spare us another four years of cynicism.