[AT] quiet list

[Carl Tatlock]

Reply to Al Jones-- It must be the winter doldrums.  This morning in 
Vermont it is about zero outside, and about zero inside in my interest 
in more winter...   I would be interested in some comments from those in 
the know (all the people on this list, of course) about the news article 
last night that corn is now $10/bushel, so wheat is now going up in 
price-- to the point where one grower interviewed said he never in his 
lifetime saw such a high price for wheat.  Baker's flour- 50# sack was 
$15, now $40. 

 I'm glad corn growers are at last getting a decent price for the 
crop--but a rise in food prices is not helping our nation's poorer 
people- caught between the pumps and the foodmarket.   No politician 
that I can see in either party can seem to offer anything but heated air 
for a solution.  Of course with the temperature outside this morning, 
even that would be a help.

  I remember during the depression we ate codfish (came in those wooden 
boxes that ended up in the shop for many uses), and my mother sent me to 
the store for a pound of hamburg and a loaf of bread and "bring home the 
change from the quarter".   If I have read the charts right, it would 
take $3.57 of the (2006) dollar to have the buying power of that $.25 of 
the 1930s.  OK.  That might buy the pound of hamburg-- or maybe some 
codfish--but it might take another $3 to buy the bread...
Is ethanol a really good idea? it seems more of a feel-good solution to 
the problem than a real answer to oil problem.  Lower price at pumps, 
but in return lower gas mileage seems to be the case?

 I expect that pro-ethanol people can shed  some light on the subject;  
I am always willing to learn.

Don't mind me-- it must have been the eclipse of the moon last 
night.....      ("Lunatic" comes from "Luna"-"Moon" root.)
These comments are not labeled  "OT"  since the corn and wheat and fuel 
are very tractor-related..  I am pretty related to my 2N Ford this 
winter, too.  Having a LOT of seat-time with the snowplow.  I think I 
have a case of limberneck from using the backblade.  It is the best time 
I've had all winter, though, but I am looking forward (ha ha) to mowing 
the lawn this spring.


Carl in Vermont.