So while I'm waiting for Part 2 of Dambala's reportage on the current real estate pickle this town is in, I'll bring you up to date on my son's Dubya project, which is now almost complete.

We helped him answer the questions - and answer them straight - despite Dan's constant subtextual commentary during the whole process ("Where was he born?"  "IN HELL...errr, Connecticut.").  The little guy actually cracked open the better book (Graffiti Bits) himself for the final four questions and found some tidbits of information on the 43rd preznit that were not to his personal liking:

• Dubya would chew tobacco and spit at the back of his classes at Harvard Business School.  Gave the kiddo an opportunity to use his favorite word: NASTY.
• The man wanted to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling for crude oil and gas - and, considering all that the kid has learned about Alaska and the dangers of spilled oil in the past year, if this hasn't tipped him over into full environmentalist mode, I don't know what will.  Learning this about Dubya just didn't sit well with him.

I ran into the mother of one of the little guy's fellow students at the grocery store and told her which president he'd been assigned to report on, and not only was she horrified ("Can they do that????"), a stockboy nearby overheard and shook his head disgustedly.  On getting the opportunity to sit with the teacher yesterday, I asked her why she'd assigned this sorry excuse for a White House resident to the kiddo and she told me she figured we could handle it.

We could handle it, she said.



Take that in a minute.  Absorb that.

Part of his assignment was to supply a picture of the president being reported on with his answers.  Dan felt we had to make things clear about how we felt about this president as a family...so he supplied five pictures:

Yep, I guess that's handling it.

Last thing we need to do: make a "favorite dish" of the president.  Despite some "possible evidence" to the contrary, I will give the Bushes this much: their greatest contribution to America has been Laura Bush's cowboy cookies recipe.  Consider that my holiday gift to all of you.  

See, things aren't all bad!  Well...