The United States Navy has announced that Dallas will be one of 20 cities to host a Navy Week in 2010. The other lucky, sea-soaked ports-of-call include Des Moines,  Salt Lake City and Little Rock, Ark. Why should a little thing like being 266 miles from the nearest salt water prevent us from seeing actual sailors strolling the streets of our fair city? How cosmopolitan can we get? Besides, one of the Navy’s sonar testing stations (UT’s Applied Research Laboratories) is in Lake Travis near Austin, anyway. So why not Navy Week in the flat plains of North Texas? All that dredging of White Rock Lake finally pays off. Too bad the fighting ships will (somehow manage to) dock here Oct. 25-31, one week after the State Fair ends.

Anyway, you may ask, what does any of this have to do with arts or culture? Well, in addition to flight demos by the Blue Angels and the Navy Leap Frogs parachute team (at the Fort Worth Alliance Airshow), part of the celebrations will be musical performances by the Navy Band — and Navy rock bands. PLUS — the Navy’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) Dive Tank will be on hand. Navy divers will demonstrate diving techniques. According to the official website, they’ll also play “an occasional game of ‘tic-tac-toe’ with any interested bystanders.”

And if all goes well, next year, perhaps the Cayman Islands will send us Pirates Week.