Economic Problems

SLATS GROBNIK scowled, carefully folded his newspaper and dropped it on the barroom floor."You know what this country needs?" he said. "A neat little war."Are you crazy? We just had a war."Yeah, and now what?"Now what? Now we have returned to a normal life."That's what I mean. Who needs normal? Normal is a recession. I don't want to think about a recession. Normal is we got too many poor people. I don't want to think about poor people. Normal is we got too much crime. I don't want to think about crime.

Honolulu, Hawaii--I have an Aunt Bert who says that when you "go visiting," you can always tell a lot about your hosts by how clean they keep their house. As a transplanted Baltimorean temporarily living in Hawaii for 10 months, I can honestly say this state would knock my 82-year-old aunt's socks off."Clean" should be the Hawaiian state motto. It is a state that has virtually never seen graffiti and has public restrooms that are spotless and contain -- wait till you hear this, Aunt Bert -- soap, toilet paper and paper towels.