The buzzing of bees and the purring of cats - two relaxing sounds I'd hate to live without.

Regarding honey's natural medicinal purposes, it's the best allergy prevention item one can ever invest in. Ingesting local pollens via swallowing local honey is responsible for my allergies going from raging to nearly nonexistent.

And not only is a spoonful of local honey each day a wonderful seasonal allergy rememdy, it's a lot sweeter to take ( and costs a lot less) than Allegra, Claritin or Zyrtec.

Wonderful essay, and a pleasure to read. I hope the missing bees are only a small anomaly, and not a portent of the future of our planet's delicate ecosystem.

To address your incredulity at my standard of living, here are a few facts.

I am not receiving, nor have I ever received, alimony. I am divorced, and the $20,000 with which I walked away from my (child-free) marriage in 2003 went toward a 20% down payment on a $60,000 condo (30-year mortgage), so my house payment, taxes, and home insurance total approximately $350 per month. The remainder (after closing costs) replaced the AC unit and the hot water heater with a bit left over to start an emergency fund.

Monthly utilities total about $125 (electric, water, phone, dial-up Internet). Food and household incidentals run about $60 a week, and unlike most Americans, I do not subscribe to television signal. For the record, I regularly purchase Scott toilet paper and I am not a fan of rice.

My condo maintenance fees are $50 a month. Each month, I add as much as possible to my emergency fund (currently at almost $4,000 I’m happy to report – that’s approximately four months living expenses for me). I live in a southern city, and I run my own modest business from my home (that accounts for extremely low gasoline usage), and I have never applied for nor received welfare or food stamps. My car insurance runs $260 per year ($130 each six months).

Believe me, I have to be frugal and budget wisely, but I certainly don't starve. I'll admit that I probably eat less than many people, yet I stay trim and healthy from those efforts. I use the library as a book source - sure, I have to wait for popular titles for a while, but they’re not going anywhere.

Oh, and aside from my Salon membership, I also maintain a subscription to Vanity Fair ($12 a year).

Your comment, "NO ONE poor pays for what they can get for free" is not an accurate statement in my case. I did read Salon free for about a year, and then I decided to invest in a membership to actively support its thorough investigative journalism. I chose to publish my letter here as Anonymous (instead of using my Salon account name) because I value my privacy.

Do I wish I had more money? Yes. I've had better earnings years, and be assured I’m always working toward that goal. But no matter how much money I may make in the future, I will continue to be frugal and budget (and invest) wisely. That just makes good financial sense.

I accidentally outed myself. Hi ho.

What's both sad and hilarious at the same time is that Berger Devine Yaeger could be so clueless as to post the embassy plans on the Internet. Hope this doesn't mean they'll be prosecuted for revealing government secrets.

By the way, their website http://www.bergerdevineyaeger.com is currently offline...

"Bush has come full circle: His ridiculousness is approaching the sort of existential absurdity that is untouchable. Watch him try to string a sensible sentence together now. Anywhere. He's become one of those guys with the Marx Brothers in A Night at the Opera who tumble through the door in the stateroom scene."

Spot on. Just had to see that again.

Also, kudos to Breathed for the delightful panels in Secondhand Lions - his charming style fit perfectly with the spirit of that film.

I certainly hope so.

Christine Ebersole is not only a consummate professional actor, she's a genuine lady. I was fortunate to work with her during the 1980s when she portrayed Ado Annie in a B'way revival of Oklahoma! - I was a young, overwhelmed press agent's apprentice, and one of my many jobs in that capacity was ferrying the orchestral score from the theater to The Merv Griffin Show musicians and back again; Ebersole and Harry Groener (in the role of Will Parker) did an Oklahoma! number for Griffin's audience. Both she and Groener were very kind to me that day, and I've followed their careers ever since. (For the record, I got the score safely back to the theater before curtain time.)

I still recall her hilarious portrayal of Ado Annie. Ebersole routinely stole the show while performing "I Can't Say No." Her star shone then and it shines now, and I sincerely hope she's honored with a Tony for Grey Gardens. She's paid her dues, and then some.

Three separate times I clicked the link for this article from the Salon main page before I finally grokked that I wasn't being misdirected offsite to some website titled "Machinist" that was simply affiliated with Salon - might Salon have given just a wee indication that they are (once again) revamping their magazine's design? Just to reduce any possible confusion?

Regarding the "Machinist" web design, the smaller font isn't kind to these ageing eyes, and neither is red-on-black or dark-gray-on-black text in the left nav column. Did Salon, perhaps, mean to title this new section "Machination" instead?

Kudos, Encognito. Talk about your life lessons...