[This post was originally published on The Living Room Tumblr.]

Things I’ve learned, or re-learned, in the last 12 hours:

• Americans’ visceral anger about 9/11 may have receded somewhat into the background over the last 10 years, but it is still absolutely there. There’s no need, yet, to say “Never Forget.” We haven’t forgotten. Not even close.
• Osama Bin Laden was very much the personal focal point of that visceral anger. I confess I was surprised by the unabashed elation that almost everyone – of all political persuasions – felt upon learning this news, like Bin Laden’s death is the V-E Day of our time. I’m not criticizing it; I felt it too. It just surprised me a little bit.
• I’m old. Or at least, I felt really old when I saw a tweet by my friend Andrew Fielding, a current student at the University of Denver, noting that he was watching the Bin Laden news from the DU student center. I remember vividly watching 9/11 itself while I was in college, and watching various events in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 (Bush’s address to Congress, etc.) from student lounges at USC. Andrew was in elementary school then.
• “Team America: World Police” is a much bigger cultural force than I realized. It’s amazing how many people online have cited America: F*** Yeah! last night and today.
• Twitter has apparently improved its infrastructure quite a bit. It’s incredible that it didn’t Fail Whale last night.
• Sandwiched between the Alabama tornadoes and Bin Laden’s death, the Royal Wedding had an amazingly short shelf life for a news event watched by 3 billion people.
• Navy SEALs are f***king awesome.