If the TV is on, I switch to "Jeopardy". If Iit was on CNN and I don't find the remote in time, I am in danger of throwing something at the TV, which would be a shame because I spent $2K on it (to see mostly lousy programs in HD). Lou Dobbs, among all the other gasbags, seems to irritate me the most,and I have no idea why.

Another favorite is Bill Bennett, who inspired me to pen the following verses a few years ago (and for which I am grateful to him):

William Bennett,The Bookie of Virtue*

[from the AP dispatch, May 2,2003:

“Casino documents show Bennett is a ‘preferred customer’ in at least four venues in Atlantic City and Las Vegas...His favorite games: video poker and slot machines. He has a revolving line of credit of at least $200,000 at each casino...”]

The man who sold a million books has bucks and bucks to spare.

He taught us all what Virtue is and really didn’t care

When at the Trump Casino by the boardwalk of great fame

He’d dropped a ton, while having lots of fun in Virtue’s game.

Ah, virtue! How thy name is praised and honored in the breach

And how I love to hear Bill Bennett bloviate and preach

And take the money when his tomes are selling really well

And hand it to a one-armed bandit wired for sound in hell.**

Now, Bill, I heard you say that you can easily afford

Your losses when you pull the lever. Really? Praise the Lord!

Miraculous indeed that what’s a vice that all should dread

Becomes, if you have scratch enough, a harmless prank instead.

I grant that I’m not famous for my wisdom or my looks

But there are things a person knows without expensive books :

So if I had such money I would have sufficient wit

To find some use more virtuous than slot-machines for it,

Like AIDS research, or homes for battered women, or good schools

Where all of us were firmly taught that all must honor rules,

Including you, the Virtue Czar, but who am I to say?

I guess I’m just not smart enough to live Bill Bennett’s way.

* Credit to Joshua Green of Washington Monthly.

** To this musician's ear, the sound made by hundreds of electronic slot machines in one big room is one that Dante would not have dared imagine...I do not exaggerate when I say that that very sound drove me out of Las Vegas early with several days left on my hotel package, never to return. (Why would I want to see a half-sized Eiffel Tower when I can spend less money and see the real one, plus a lot of other nifty things?)

that seems to have slipped entirely is that Gates was returning from a trip to China. This involves many hours of sitting in a plane, little if any sleep, waiting in line at customs etc. But most of all, there is a complete reversal of day and night in about 18 hours and the jet-lag effect is horrendous (I speak from personal experience). It can take days, if not weeks, to readjust. Being confronted with a stressful situation (beginning with a refractory front door) in such a condition could play a very large part in Gates' reaction. The Ivy League effect was probably an element, but the state of Prof. Gates nervous system might have been more important.

As such things go, the CPD is probably more sensitive to matters of race than most: the upscale parts of Cambridge are home to highly educated and often affluent people from all over the world (Harvard Square is like a mini-Heathrow...you can hear a dozen languages spoken by just walking down Brattle Street), and there are large groups of Dominicans, Haitians, and Vietnamese. But Cambridge is not just Harvard and MIT, and if a Cambridge cop is a local he is likely to be from North Cambridge, which is very Irish and very working-class (Tip O'Neill's district). I suspect that, given the history of the Irish in Boston and the long-standing resentments that have not yet been outgrown (especially in "Southie", the setting for "The Departed", which caught the tone very well), some class elements on the part of Sgt. Crowley or other policemen might also have been an element in the mix.

AS a supporter of Pres. Obama, I understand his response to a basically stupid question, but I regret it. For once, his coolness slipped; even though he acknowledged not knowing all the facts (which now may never be known, thanks to the enormous pile of crap depositied on the story by our free and utterly irresponsible press) I hope he finds a way to retreat gracefully from his gaffe.

Jerry Rosen, resident of Cambridge-Somerville for 30 years, now of Jersey City