opinion column
Ellen Goodman
BOSTON — You have to admit that this gives new meaning to the idea of a “shovel-ready project.” There are now 1,100 square feet on the South Lawn of the White House being transformed into a kitchen garden. If Americans follow the first family’s lead, the seed pack will become the new stimulus package. At least we’ll have something to do with those pitchforks after the AIG bonus babies surrender their money.
BOSTON — I was doing fine until I saw the rocking chairs. My attacks of Bush-bashing were in remission. I told myself it was time to move on, to embrace the change you can believe in and, well, you get the idea.
BOSTON — Did you miss this in the post-election news? Sen. Robert Byrd, 91, announced that he will give up the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee to Sen. Daniel Inouye, 84. The torch has passed to a new generation.
BOSTON – Unless you stayed up to the bitter end, you missed the last question. It came over the Internet from Peggy in Amherst, N.H., and, as Tom Brokaw warned, it had a certain “Zen-like” quality: “What don’t you know and how will you learn it?”
BOSTON – I really hate to bring it up. We already have two branches of our national government in full-scale meltdown. The president looks like a guy pleading before the parole board for early release. The Congress makes “dysfunctional” sound like a compliment.
BOSTON – You gotta love this campaign. No sooner does the curtain come crashing down on one climactic moment than up it goes on another. The Democrats choose NoDrama Obama and the channel switches to Soap Opera McCain. You want change? I’ll show you change: Introducing Sarah Palin, a running mate as unfamiliar as the tundra.
CASCO BAY, Maine – These are the summer days when the island is overrun with gifts. The raspberries are still ripe and the first of the blackberries have arrived, bearing their sweet intimations of fall.
BOSTON – During the Vietnam War there was a phrase that came to symbolize the entire misbegotten adventure: “It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it.” It was said at first with sincerity, then repeated with irony, and finally with despair.
BOSTON – I don’t know too many economists who get confused with preachers. But there are times when they talk about virtue and temptation as if they were free-market holy rollers.
