Finally, a small window of time for a quickie blog post!

While I'm at the new abode in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I have not yet reached the "living out of moving boxes" stage, because the moving truck doesn't arrive until Friday. However, I did get my computer set up in the basement, so, for now, this is what the Ann Arbor headquarters of Classical Values looks like:

Note the custom chair design; I have no furniture, so I'm sitting on an overturned trashcan that someone kindly left here.

Have to say, I already miss the Philadelphia Inquirer. Much as I liked to criticize it, it provided much food for this blog, and I still feel a hunger for local news. This morning I subscribed to the Detroit Free Press, but delivery hasn't started yet, and I'm unfamiliar with the paper.

Philadelphia is only a day's drive away, and if I get homesick I can always check out the Inquirer's web site, but I suspect that over time my interest in the antics of Philadelphia politicians will fade. There are always human interest stories, though. Like today's writeup of a man who was so distracted by talking on his cell phone that he was fatally struck by a SEPTA train:

On Tuesday, Sobon was sitting on the tracks when he was struck by the R3 West Trenton train about 10:25 p.m., Middletown Police Officer Michael Lubold said.

Sobon had been with a few friends behind a house on nearby Virginia Avenue and left to talk on his cell phone, Lubold said.

Meanwhile, the R3 train was making its second-to-last stop at the Langhorne station just minutes away, and began traveling west, Lubold said.

The engineer told police that he first thought there was debris on the tracks and that he applied the emergency brake. When the train came within 300 feet of Sobon, the engineer noticed him and blew the train's horn.

Initially, Sobon did not move. When he tried to move, it was too late. The engineer told police he believed Sobon was on his cell phone at the time.

Police have ruled out suicide, Lubold said, but will await a toxicology report after his autopsy, scheduled for today.

And the lesson to be learned is a universal truth: do not talk on your cell phone while sitting on the railroad tracks!

Maybe there should be a law.

Come to think of it, maybe it should also be illegal to blog while sitting on trashcans.