Farm supports for opium?

Always a downer, NPR reported this morning that the US has spent $200 million this year on agricultural projects in Afganistan to help the farmers become more productive.

And they have. The opium crop is expected to set new records. Opium is the chief export of Afganistan, accounting for $2 billion last year. (I wonder who figures this out, but that's gist for another post)

I'm an ex-farmer. With help like this, I'd still be doing it.

Go figure.

Pigeons...

The latest word on the Minneapolis bridge collapse puts the blame on pigeon poop.

There are a heck of a lot of pigeons in this country, and I bet lots of them roost on bridges.

Despite their ubiquity, I don't remember ever seeing much written about them. Doves yes. Homing and racing pigeons for sure. But not much on your plain-Jane, coo-happy pigeon.

It's time for the guys who wrote Salt, or Cod, and that genre to write "Pigeon".

I would buy it.