In the spirit of Jeff's piece yesterday, a few observations on local matters...

-- As much as I've enjoyed the return of Mission of Burma this decade, their first two comeback albums struck me as patchy, with some great songs and some unnecessary, even silly ones. So my expectations were tempered for The Sound, the Speed, the Light ... and - it's great! No instant classics here, but a stream of crunching, anxious rock - and some fresh musical touches and quotes (I think I hear an Aerosmith riff in here somewhere).

-- Kudos to the Globe for again, pointing out an aspect of city life that makes many of us want to spend less time in the Hub of the Universe. In this election year, might someone ask city officials why exactly the city seems averse to cracking down on a huge public safety risk? As Filipov notes, Seattle does it - and lots of people want to live there.

-- While Sarah Vowell is pretty far left, she is a funny and clever writer with some real insights on Governor John Winthrop in The Wordy Shipmates. I'm only halfway through - so hopefully she will note that the American impulse to help others, whether or not they need or ask for it, may be found in many strains of American life other than foreign and economic policy of Republic Presidents.

-- Thinking globally: if the President delivers the speech that Tom Friedman wrote for him, the Nobel Prize might actually regret their award decision. Alas, it won't happen. Despite all the Change talk, Obama and his team have proven die-hard supporters of entrenched institutions - accepting this award follows in the tradition of Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, General Motors and the UAW, and now, the Nobel Prize Committee.