A SHORT APOLOGY IS IN ORDER FOR THE DELAY IN GETTING THINGS POSTED TO THIS WEBLOG TODAY, in that Your Correspondent had to download WindowsXP Service Pack 3 onto his computer--in the process, reducing available free space on his hard drive to less than half that which is available.

(And all the while thinking that such an update would supplant Service Pack 2 to the point where such would be deleted without performance-related problems.)

In any case, if you think such is a clear sign that the computer needs a tune-up, those of you in the geek fraternity as are "in the loop" on things of this sort will please let me know.

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TORNADIC ACTIVITY YESTERDAY ACROSS THE MIDWEST MAY HAVE BEEN ENOUGH TO FURTHER DO IN THE NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA LEAD- AND ZINC-MINING TOWN OF PICHER, about halfway between Tulsa and the Missouri line as the crow flies: It just so happens that Picher, which just celebrated a somber 90th birthday celebration, is being targeted for a Federal buydown thanks to pollution aggravated by years of lead and zinc mining activity in the area.

Which, in its turn, translated into pollution aggravated by years of:

• release of airborne contaminants from the local lead smelter;
• piles of waste rock carrying its own brand of contaminants and carcinogens; and
• the whole translating into an abnormally high rate of lead poisoning which, in turn, aggravates developmental and learning disorders in younger children.

Quite the change from some 50 years ago, when Picher was about Winona's size (around 25,000) in the population department and rather lively, especially on pay nights when it was not uncommon for miners to blow their cheques on wine, women and song--and have the scars to show for it thanks to Saturday-night brawls which could be incited with little or no provocation.

And all too often, about the only career options boys in the area had on leaving high school was either work in the mines, or leave town.

So, it looks as if Picher may be about to yield up the ghost, with last night's tornadoes pretty much the "last nail in the coffin," so to speak, on top of the Federal Superfund buydown.

But then again, the old saying hath it that disasters come in threes....

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"THE DIRTY DIGGER" HAS BEEN REBUKED FOR ONCE:

News America Corporation has withdrawn its offer for Long Island's "respectable" tabloid Newsday, leaving the only serious bidders left for same Mortimer Zuckerman (as owns the New York Daily News) and Cablevision Systems, which dommos cable TV in Nassau and Suffolk counties--traditionally considered "Long Island" in the context of New York City, never mind where Queens and Brooklyn, both boroughs of New York City, are on Long Island themselves.

(Technically, Brooklyn is officially known as Kings County.)

Not to mention where Keith Rupert Murdoch may be under orders to testify in a piracy trial involving the manufacture and sale of "test cards" whereby one could get (in theory) free satellite TV.