let's you and him fight

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Some things are better than TV or even video games as my younger son proved this morning when he zipped downstairs -- uncharacteristically early -- to hear close-up the shouting match that had erupted in the street and floated up to his bedroom window.

The participants included two cops, home improvement company trucks/workers, my evangelical Christian neighbor Joe, who was apoplectic, and Gloria, a short plump woman from down the block.

Everyone was yelling about the improvement company's effort to insulate Herschel's house -- a domain apparently usurped by Gloria ever since Herschel had been deposited in an old age home. Joe maintained that the work was a health hazard to his eight-month-pregnant daughter ... attacking the asbestos shingles would create dust and Joe's house was in the line of fire. Joe and his wife Pat were yelling at Gloria. Gloria, while talking to one of the cops, was crying. Finally, it turned out the home improvement company had a federal permit to do the work ... which was enough to satisfy the cops.

My son returned from the porch where he had been listening with a big grin on his face.

Things are so much easier -- and more juicy -- when the old adage is adhered to: "Let's you and him fight."
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