'To DeWalt, a ponytailed musician ...': That's it. Vermont is out of New England! Granted, I'm no fan of George Bush either. But I need a provocation to launch what I've always dreamed of launching: Establishment of Greater New England. ... Here's the final deal:

-- New England cedes everything west of the Connecticut River (click on map) to New York. OK, so we lose the Berkshires. But we also unload Vermont and western Connecticut (i.e. New Haven) to New York.

-- New England in turn gets the wink-wink nod from New York to invade southern Quebec and finish the job once and for all. We took Montreal once, we can take it again. They'll be throwing flowers in the streets when we get there!

-- New England is also ceded rights to the Canadian Maritime Provinces, as well as possibly Bermuda.

But, of course, all of this is not without dominos-falling peril. Think of it:

-- Pennsylvannia will absolutely freak out when New York takes over western Old New England and, naturally, New Jersey, as is its sphere-of-influence right. So PA will have to strike to take Delaware and Maryland, which are also within its sphere-of-influence rights.

-- But that will galvanize the sleeping southern giant of Virginia, which undoubtably will retake W. VA and perhaps large portions of the Carolinas, in addition to probable hefty parts of Kentucky and Tennessee.

Etc., Etc., Etc. The redrawn Eastern Seaboard map: Greater New England to the north is finally established and the Florida Problem to the south is finally solved by a takeover by Georgia, assuming Georgia wants Florida.

P.S. -- Some people may think I'm mad. But I think this plan makes an awful lot of sense.  ¶ 6:18 AM