these posts are getting shorter and shorter. this is my last week at the summer job, and i usually have actual work to do -- so bear with me. i'll get back to posting reams of blather just as soon as i'm back in philly. sweet, sweet philly.

for now, guess what small but telling piece of information i heard yesterday?

apparently peace corps members in africa were living in a bit too much luxury. the administration, in its infinite wisdom, has recently decided to cut free email and internet access for peace corps volunteers. the way this works in practice, for one corps member* at least, is that while she once had to walk an hour to the nearest town to use the internet, she can now stay home, because there's no affordable access to be had, even after an hour's walk. her parents back in grand forks are said to be thrilled at this turn of events.

you know, i bet all the money we're saving on peace corps internet access could probably buy as much as half a missile, if we saved up for a while.

* "one corps member" = a certain grand forks central (and stanford) grad who once (ca. 1997) bequeathed me "her" newspaper, and whose parents are friends with the bakkens.