At the risk of turning into Larry King's USA Today column

Some completely random Sunday afternoon thoughts:

For some reason, I'm a lot more at ease with the new Pope than I was earlier in the week. I think he's going to pull it off.

I'm going to side with Sheila on the Wayward Child story below, and put a large bet on the fact that there's a whole heck of a lot of backstory that we are missing. I think the video clip is a very valuable and insightful little Rorshach test for a whole range of social issues.

I'm off to borrow long-time commentator Barry S.'s lawn mower. It's a true measure of friendship to be able to ask--and to agree--to loan your lawnmower. Mine is down with a failed spring in the pull cord turner that causes the little metal wings to fly out and engage the motor starter. It was really cool to take apart. We're waiting for Sears to deliver the part, so in the meantime I've got to get the lawn cut. I used to be at ease with this: I had an unspoken bond with my two immediate neighbors Mike and Mitch to not make the other guy look bad in the otherwise cutthroat lawn Olympiads that reign in our little slice of the ru-barbs (the rural suburbs). Unfortunately, in the past year both Mike and Mitch and families have moved on, having been replaced by Gus and Ed, two otherwise very nice guys who I like a lot but have a little more strict notion of what a lawn should look like, and how the other guy's lawn influences your property value. Uggg. Nothing that's said, of course, but it's all in the look. Anthropologists could have a field day studying the cult of Scotts. So, off to cut, and then to put down the weed killer.