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I spent Saturday raking leaves and noticed that this year, unlike past years, there were no acorns hitting me on the head. There were no acorns buried under the fallen leaves. There were no acorns!

Today's Washington Post confirms that it's not just my yard. 

The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head. 

Last year was a bumper crop in my yard and the plump squirrels attest to that. But this winter they are going to be in trouble. Are others also missing their annual acorn crop?

A guest column by Michelle Lewis was published in the Chapel hill Herald today promoting the merger of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, a position that I have advocated for many years.  But this column articulated that position particularly well. 

I am including a pointer to the column but one needs to be registered with the Herald Web Site to read it.  I have e-mailed Ms. Lewis to get her permission to post the full text in this entry.

http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/columnists/guests_ch/110-1028506.cfm?

In today's economic climate a merger makes more sense than ever.

The Obama team and Democrats are acknowledging that an economic stimulus plan equal to 4%-5% of US GDP is needed.  In other words 500-700 Billion dollars are needed for investing toward infrastructure as a means of creating jobs to stimulate the economy.

If there is anything of value that we may have learned from the previous local discourse on the global economic crises I would hope that it is: it is healthy to read between the lines of the national discourse mainstream setting media (i.e. NPR, The New York Times, CNN, and all mainstream corporate media to the right of these). 

Before taking another message and echoing and parroting again, lets take stock of where the financial bailout has put us.