"We've had cloning in the South for years. It's called cousins." - Robin Williams

I'm bothered. I have problems with the truck
The thermostat housing, which in a '59 Chevy has two halves, leaks badly where it bolts to the block. I think the gasket failed, so replacing it is just an annoyance.
But the big problem: it won't start. I'm getting fuel to the carb but I *think* it's not getting past a throttle plate I suspect is stuck. But it may also be an electrical problem, and I'll know if that's the case when I hook up a timing light. I have one...someplace.
I had hoped to fire it up and back it into Barnette so it would be secure for the 9 days I'm in P.R. and Pam's in MI. Now I don't know if that will happen.
Bugs me.

I got another of Fred's walls painted with Kilz. This one was the worst in terms of moisture damage and I'm assuming it therefore contributed most to the musty smell in there. I made sure it got a thick coat, but won't know if that mustiness is gone until all the walls are painted and dry.

I also got the brooder set up. Tomorrow I'll get the pine shavings, waterer, and feed, so that as soon as we're home I can get the chicks. I want them as close to feathered out as possible before I head to Africa so Pam doesn't have to give them the kind of attention they need at the beginning.

While painting in Fred I listened to Terry Gross' program, Fresh Air on NPR. She interviewed a guy who is currently the editor of the big business magazine in Great Britain (don't remember the name of the thing), but recently wrote a book about his investigation of the drug trade in Latin America where he worked for years as a business reporter. His book analyzes the drug cartels as though they were legit business firms and his analysis was fascinating. He explained that the big cartels work just like a McDonalds franchise as they spread out, and like Walmart as they control pricing. Then he talked about how ineffective our drug war is because we don't respond to them like the big corporations they are.
One of the things that struck me was what he said is the false impression that the authorities knowingly give when they report on a drug raid. They say that X kilos of heroin were seized "with a street value of $2 million." We read that and think, "Boy, that hits them in the wallet big time."
Wrong.
He explained that the retail, or street value of the drugs is meaningless in this case. It's like saying that a vineyard dropped a barrel of expensive Chardonnay that spilled all over the floor at a loss of $5,000. Sure, by the time that wine had all been bottled, transported to fancy wine shops, and sold to snooty oenophiles it would have brought in that kind of money. But at the barrel stage of production the loss of wine set them back a couple of hundred dollars, no big deal. And they've got another thousand barrels of the stuff out in the warehouse.
But hey, it sounds good for the drug enforcement agencies to express it in those terms, and any govt. agency worth its salt knows how to get good PR.