When I lived in a village in Mexico as a grad student (a couple of decades back), there were days and weeks at a stretch when I'd have to haul all our water from a spring half a mile away. (And we were the lucky ones, being so close to the spring!) Believe me, a couple of people can find a way to live on two buckets a day when they have to carry the water themselves!

Our generic problem as Americans is that we are shielded all too well from the real costs of any of the stuff we use, water included. Attach a cost to things, and we can change our habits very quickly.

Salon headline: "Young voters unlikely to help Obama much. By Thomas Schaller."

Source for headline: "Obama and the Youth Vote. In an article in today's New York Post, I argue that Barack Obama actually does have a pretty good likelihood of increasing youth turnout -- and that, moreover, such voters may be undercounted in the polls." From http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

Mr. Schaller: comments?

I look forward to the latest Lay every week, and I'm enjoying this story. Carol, keep it up! (And "tomreedtoon," go suck on a lemon.)

When was the last time anybody lost a buck (or an election) betting on the stupidity of the American public?

Even if Obama doesn't pick up a single Southern state, it will be worth it to compete in all of them, if only to demonstrate (deeds, not words) that he cares (and that the Democratic Party cares) about the people who live there. Down the road, that kind of effort will pay off.

Just love those l'il olive bits!

Thanks for the laughs...

I'm thoroughly enjoying the strip, the story, the dialogue, and especially CL's patented stylish graphics. Keep it up! And please ignore the inveterately obnoxious posts of tomreedtoon, who is simply trying out for Curmudgeon of the Year. (Sorry, tomreedtoon, McCain's got a lock on that one for 2008.)

Now someone needs to do a nice cost-benefit analysis to measure how much the electricity consumed by these new TVs compares to the gas saved by not leaving the house while mesmerized by the best television resolution in human history.

You probably didn't mean this proposal to be taken literally, but frankly it's not a bad idea.

The hardest number to find on one of the new flat-screens is its energy consumption. Supposed there are "Energy Star" TV's being produced, but I challenge you to find one of them at your local Big Box. Or, even harder, to find out what an Energy Star TV consumes vs. the regular kind.

Or for a different kind of challenge, try asking the saleskid at Big Box how much electricity is pulled by any of the umpteen flat-screen models on display. You'll get the same look I got five years ago when I was shopping for a car and dared to ask Mr. Friendly at the local Ford or GM dealership about gas mileage. The look that asks: "What planet are you from? Nobody cares about that!"

Here's a hint: the only place you will find a number theoretically related to electricity consumption on any of the new tv's is on the back, in teensy-tiny print, on the sticker by the cord. Bring a flashlight and a magnifying glass if you want to read it. Most 19 inch LCDs consume 130 watts. I assume the larger models consume progressively more, but don't want to risk tipping over the expensive displays to find out.

It's more than a bit ironic that we're moving to electricity-sipping CFL's for lighting but leaving the LCD tv plugged in and consuming who-knows-how-much electricity every day...

Now someone needs to do a nice cost-benefit analysis to measure how much the electricity consumed by these new TVs compares to the gas saved by not leaving the house while mesmerized by the best television resolution in human history.

You probably didn't mean this proposal to be taken literally, but frankly it's not a bad idea.

The hardest number to find on one of the new flat-screens is its energy consumption. Supposed there are "Energy Star" TV's being produced, but I challenge you to find one of them at your local Big Box. Or, even harder, to find out what an Energy Star TV consumes vs. the regular kind.

Or for a different kind of challenge, try asking the saleskid at Big Box how much electricity is pulled by any of the umpteen flat-screen models on display. You'll get the same look I got five years ago when I was shopping for a car and dared to ask Mr. Friendly at the local Ford or GM dealership about gas mileage. The look that asks: "What planet are you from?"

Here's a hint: the only place you will find a number theoretically related to electricity consumption on any of the new tv's is on the back, in teensy-tiny print, on the sticker by the cord. Most 19 inch LCDs consume 130 watts. I assume the larger models consume progressively more, but don't want to risk tipping over the expensive displays to find out.

It's more than a bit ironic that we're moving to electricity-sipping CFL's for lighting but leaving the LCD tv plugged in and consuming who-knows-how-much electricity every day...

Somehow this is all reminding me of Fahrenheit 451, which I read as a pre-teen nearly forty years ago. The image that has stuck in my mind is of mindless chatter and misinformation-blasting "news" programs on full-wall TV screens. It sounded like a fantasy then.

It isn't how many houses McCain and his beer-heiress ex-mistress own. It's that he will ask his staff to investigate and get back to us on the number. Such details are for the little people. A minor distraction? So was Marie Antoinette's "let them eat cake".