THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, May 26, 2011 A
brendan@weirs.com
inNEW HAMP SHI R E IT’S BEEN BUGGING ME
FOOL * Live Free *A FLATLANDER’S OBSERVATIONS ON LIFE or Die.
by Brendan Smith Weirs Times Editor
I woke up on Saturday,
May 21st, and I thought the predictions had come true. The sun was shining and
the temperature was in the 70s.
Judgment Day had hap-
pened while I was asleep and I was in heaven. But, my euphoria quick-
ly turned back to real- ity as yet another dark cloud and a quick shower passed by adding on to the days of inclement weather that had been plaguing the Northeast. Being the type who
likes to look at the glass as half-full, unless it is prune juice, I realized that the world was still in one piece and I could turn my thoughts to other impor- tant thing that I had been neglecting over the past few weeks. For instance, whatever
happened to the bed bug bill? The bed bug bill isn’t
the name of a character in a John Waters movie; it was a matter that was being discussed in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. It seemed that there is a plethora of bed bugs crawling around in homes and hotel rooms around the state and some had decided that the prob- lem was so bad that exter- minators were not enough. This was a job for state lawmakers. As the old saying goes,
when the House and Sen- ate are in session, nothing is safe. I’d imagined the little critters were soon go- ing to be shaking in their cotton sheets. I was studying the pro-
gression of the bed bug bill when it suddenly be- came overshadowed by all of this brouhaha going on about the budget. What
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was once an interesting TV news feature about these tiny terrors was soon over- shadowed by state workers in Concord, a couple who were actually from New Hampshire, who were yell- ing and screaming about something or other. After a while it got pret-
ty boring and I stopped watching. All the postur- ing about attacks on the middle class and “blah, blah, blah” really started to just be the same old, same old. I’m in the middle class and everything was just fine with me, I didn’t really get it. Then came this end of
the world thing and the bed bug issue really got pushed way back into my subconscious. Now that we’ve been giv-
en the green light until the next end of the world
– I think this is about the ninth or tenth one I can remember – I couldn’t help but be drawn back to the status of these puny para- sites. What ever became of the bed bug bill? Would state legislators be able to use their powers to rid us of these bite-sized beasts? I had to know! I researched thoroughly
and found that the bed bug bill had been found “inexpedient to legislate” which is a polite way of saying “this is a stupid bill.” In other words, the bill had been squashed and not the bed bugs. What was even more dis-
heartening was that this had happened months ago and no one said a peep. Before all this budget
nonsense, the bed bug bill was big news, but it got pushed to the back burner
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as soon as a few people with signs and bullhorns showed up on the State House lawn. I must admit finding out
about the bed bug bill being beaten before being balloted bothered me. Did the drifting of attention from this crucial issue trigger its demise? Will the bed bug believers back another bill? Would these mighty mites be able to procreate wildly through our state without a law to stop them from doing so? I guess I’ll have to wait
5
till next year, once all of this budget madness has calmed down and the pow- ers that temporarily be in Concord can get back to getting a handle on the things that are truly important in this great state. Which reminds me. Whatever happened to
the bill to make the state color purple?
I’ll be right back. Brendan Smith welcomes
your comments at bren-
dan@weirs.com
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