Hammer Mill Days

Okay, I think we have this thing settled. Everyone in agreement? No? Good. We value diversity of perspective here at Big Green. Especially when LIVES HANG IN THE BALANCE.... Sorry, friends. I hate to raise my voice, but sometimes you just have to. With sketchy-looking promoters breathing down our necks (and judging by the aroma, they had limburger hoagies for lunch), we are still hashing out the details of our means of transport on our rapidly approaching interstellar tour in support of Cowboy Scat: Songs in the Key of Rick , our latest album. We have, in fact, identified a rent-a-wreck spacecraft that is within our budget. It's being offered by a subsidiary of our corporate label, Hegemonic Records and Worm Farm, Inc., operating on the planet Neptune. Fortunately, they deliver. (But only as far as the moon. I guess that extra 239,000 miles is a bridge too far for these goons.) Okay, my thought was this. We program Marvin (my personal assistant) with the ability to fly the craf...

This will be brief. I'm in the middle of a take-home mid term in Semantics. (Still a student at 54; Christ on a freaking bike.) Anyway... Today is the day that extended SNAP (food stamp) benefits expire. Happy Halloween, everybody! SNAP was allocated some additional money in the stimulus package, way back in early 2009, when it almost seemed possible that our national government would do what needed to be done to rescue the economy. The assumption back then was that the economy would be generating enough prosperity by this time that SNAP benefits wouldn't be needed. Obama's chief economic adviser at the time - a certain Dr. Pangloss, I believe - was certain Congress and the president would remain committed to putting people back to work. Then, of course, the Austerians came to power in 2011 and set us on the righteous path of Japan in the 1990s - the path we are crawling along today on our bloody hands and knees. Millions are still out of work, millions more under-emplo...