The news is so predictable, Michael Jackson, who won on American Idol or Survivor, and the new Pope is a creep. Yawn. The biggest surprise would be if anti-Catholicism was not the standard company line any more. Ha, ha, fundamentalist nation. In my experience, secularism rules. In modern life, law is religion, science is religion, consumption is religion. Most of my students have never been inside a church or temple ("their parents believed they should decide for themselves as adults about religion," like that ever happens for anyone except criminals in jail or recovering addicts) and ignorance on the subject is the prevailing theology. A very tiny minority are religious, or know something about religion. The essays I get on the separation of church and state either make me laugh or cry. Not because of the opinions - not even because of the typos - but because some don't even know the difference between being Jewish, an atheist, a Methodist, a Wiccan, or a Canadian.

But - from the TU, here is some good news for the Hudson River and those of us on its waterfront. Here's the story in the Freeman.

It is actually hot today -- and I am going to spend at least some time outside before it rains, even with the crush of end of semester work.