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Thanks for the lessons. You're smack-on to say that what's important to the 'burbs is what's not there. That's why it all started, I think (enabled by the automobile, of course). Reston, VA, was created in the 1960s as a solution to city problems. They built the place for the middle class, then imported city problems along with city folk who were inticed to move there by free or cheap housing. The problems linger.

I never knew Fallaci; but I didn't do a lot of thinking in the 1980s, either... I mean, I was in school most the decade and in business the rest.

30 cites in the Library of Congress catalog -- wow!

Great fun, her take on the Founding. I think I'm gonna take that attitude and go read Beard's stupid 1913 "Economic Interpretation of the Ameircan Founding." I'll take along a knife... And I love her on rich Americans: very, very good. By way of perspective, I ran her name by a communist friend of mine, my connection to Fidel. I can't wait to hear back!

I'm having fun thinking through this suburbs thing. Do you know the DC area? I've been watching Arlington, VA, and wondering when the inside-the-beltway Rte. 50 corridor is gonna get hit by the builders. Fairfax is a special beast, owned inside-out by the developers, so zoning wont' be a problem... more interesting is Arlington County, which is still part of DC, it often seems. In Maryland its happening to the original 'burbs: McMansions being fit into 1/4-acre lots of orginal GI-bill homes. Quite a parade.

We can apply the same notions that led Tocqueville to predict the American usurpation of Mexican land to today, and I don't see space as an inhibitor. Money follows the path of least resistance, be it Henderson, Nevada or Gaithersburg, Maryland. More puzzling is California: which way will she go? Even California politics are susceptible to economics. But to water rights? Hah!

I was hoping for more from Caldwell as to why rich people like Massachusetts. Maybe I missed it. I think rather they like it despite the taxes. Maine, for example, has a high sales tax to soak the tourists (a la FLA) and an 8 per cent income tax (and property taxes to kill). The plants are closing, Walmart has roosted, and the population is getting old. The government promotes this outcome. Why are they so stupid? They don't change because they don't have to, that's why. The rich still like the place. This year's tourism was off, so maybe they'll open one eye in Augusta. A couple eyebrows were raised last month over the news.

It's the same along the Hudson Valley, FDR's home turf, as you say. One of God's most beautiful places, and its a cultural sink hole. The irony is perfect: an eighty-year depression enabled by the New Deal that was to solve it (thanks for pointing this out). The smart money moved to Henderson, Nevada.

I keep hoping there's opportunity in those old northeast mill towns. There are more ghosttowns in the East than anywhere else. I love driving through them. Get off the interstate by Albany or Springfield, Mass, and its like Grandma's attic. I love it, but it's desparately sad.

Some (more) random thoughts on our trip:

- I was fascinated by the spanish-language billboards, mostly from car dealers, in midwest rural areas. I guess migrant labor has settled into car loans and credit card debt. Don't suppose their kids'll be picking lettuce?

- Had a set of renters on our lake in Maine this past week. Don't usually get them, so this is not a good sign. Actually, I'm not sure what it means other than a set of louder than usual neighbors (we pride ourselves on being the loudest on the lake). Anyway, my kids got a good lesson on marijuana use. Our temporary neighbors set out in a canoe, passing a joint. It was odd to see the puffs of smoke on the lake, be it cigarettes or whatever (the civilized in Maine reserve such activity for the campfire or the 15th tee). My kids didn't seem to notice, so I let it drop.

Back at camp we were startled by screams from the lake. Four generations and there's never been a serious accident there; we take water safety very seriously. It was our friends, of course, capsized in the canoe. My daughter (age 12) and I hustled out in an outboard and set them right. She asked me about them, and I asked if she'd seen the smoke before. She had. "See what marijuana leads to," I said. She's not convinced, as she maintains they were stupid before they smoked anything.

They lost the canoe from their dock during the night. We found it a mile down the lake.

- I was more than pleased by the Park Service. I know there are issues out there, but so far as their retail service goes, it was all smooth. A real gem we found across the Golden Gate Bridge was an old Nike missle site the Park Service has renovated as a museum, launch pads and all. I hadn't realized those things were nuke-armed, 10, 20 and even a few 40 megaton loads. The idea was to blow up the sky as a last-resort defense. There were some 300 sites around the world and around every major U.S. city. They were phazed out in the 1970s following the START talks and formalization of M.A.D.

- I brought along some old 1970s era CDs. I never realized how bad the post-Beatles were until my daughter screamed at me for putting on a John Lennon disk. She's right, it was stupid music. Now she's got me questioning the earlier stuff. They didn't feel this way about my Stones disks. They even let me play Exile with impunity and loud. My son, it turns out, was born for southern rock. He's a dedicated Skynard fan now. We otherwise stuck to the modern stuff and classical. Pat Methany is a perfect match for driving through Vermont, or across the Continental Divide at 12,000 feet, and, as I mentioned earlier, the B-52s work wonders in San Francisco. Eminem goes well with Lovelock, NV, and we couldn't resist him in Salt Lake (don't tell Utah Girl). Korn is good everywhere, but especially in Nebraska. I got my revenge when my daughter admitted that Lincoln Park was starting to get boring, although I got caught liking an Alecia Keyes song. Oh, the Doors do well on today's youth: I subjected them to it in L.A. to marked success.

- I'm pissed at the city of SF for the condition of the McKinley statute at the city end of Golden Gate Park.

- I remember Venice Beach as being far more interesting than how we found it this summer. In general, the West Coast has lousy beaches. Great rocks and cliffs, but lousy beaches.

Not sure how de Toqueville fits in, but there it is. What a summer.

- Michael

PsyOp: thanks for use of your thread;
Molly P: you admitted to reading the earlier accounts, so this fills it out for now.

P.S. Anyone need a vagabond for hire?