Bob Levey (Barbara Tyroler)

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Levey Live: Speaking Freely
Washington Post Columnist
Friday, May 18, 2001; 1 p.m. EDT

"Levey Live: Speaking Freely," hosted by Washington Post columnist Bob Levey, appears every Friday at 1 p.m. EDT. It is a live, open-agenda discussion offering washingtonpost.com users around the world the opportunity to ask questions and discuss topics of their choice with Bob.

Fearless Bob takes your questions about virtually everything, from sports and politics (there's a difference?) to world events, Metro area traffic and issues raised in Bob's columns.

The transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Bob Levey: Top of a Friday afternoon to you, folks. The weather may be a bit cool (I actually arose at 2 a.m. to grab a t-shirt--I'm usually an Al Gore-like sleep-in-the-nude type). But this show will probably be as hot as ever (isn't it great to write such weak transitions?).
Without further adieu (yes, I actually say someone write that the other day, without tongue in cheek)......

Bethesda, Md.: Summer greetings, Bob. I have a question.

Everyday I commute by car between Bethesda and downtown Washington. I generally drive through the Massachusetts Avenue area near American University. Along the way, I am typically stalled by other commuters on bicycles who take over the left lanes and slow traffic to a crawl, or the student Rollerbladers (most wearing headphones) who zip in and out of traffic, nearly causing accidents.

What happened to all those fancy bike paths that the enviros have been crying for all these years, and why don't these bikers and bladers use them? I know there is a bike trail from Bethesda into the downtown D.C. area....why don't commuter bikers use them and leave the roads for the cars?

And please don't tell me to take Metro, I swore off that daily nightmare years ago.

Bob Levey: The bike paths ran only along a few streets--13th and Rhode Island Avenue, if memory serves. Massachusetts Avenue up your way was never part of that semi-grand experiment.
I sense that you're not going to like this, but the bikers and bladers have just as much of a right to that pavement as you do. That isn't just Bob Two-Fingers saying so. It's the law saying so.
If you aren't going to try Metro again (you should, you should), try to take a couple of deep breaths and share and share alike

Scaggsville, Md.: Hi. Where can I donate old magazines, such as Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone? Thanks.

Bob Levey: Happy to report that I had lunch just yesterday with the one and only Sam Gatewood, who runs Camp Moss Hollow. That's the camp I support each summer through my Send a Kid to Camp campaign.
Sam told me that he (and his campers) welcome donations of any and all old magazines. I asked Sam if he was really, truly ready to deal with hundreds of them. He said he was.
Let's take him at his word. His phone number is 202-289-1510.

Rockville, Md.: Do you know anything about the new Wizards coach except he used to be MJ's coach? Like what is his record?

Bob Levey: He hasn't won the way Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, Lenny Wilkens and Gregg Popovich have won. But Doug Collins knows the game, and he knows M.J. That's a heck of a basis for a new beginning

New York, N.Y.: A delightful column today! As a transplanted DC-er (actually from Falls Church), I enjoy driving up the Turnpike as a transition back into New York City. And nothing beats that wonderful last 20 minutes or so, when you can see the beautiful skyline and realize how lucky you are you live where you do. Of course, I must admit the real reason I like the Turnpike is that last exit southbound, before you enter Delaware, is named after my great-great-great aunt!

Clara Barton Green

Bob Levey: Thanks so much, and much agreement about that vista of the New York skyline as you approach from the south. I was born and raised in NYC, and I still get a little choke-y when I see that view. (Please, please don't tell me that the chokes are the result of PCBs floating into my car from the wastelands of Linden).
By the way, will you settle a bet for me?
You've certainly heard the gag about how Jimmy Hoffa was buried in the end zone of the stadium in the Meadowlands......
Has there ever been a serious move to name a service after on the NJT after him?

Laurel, Md.: Re: The New Jersey Turnpike

First, New Jerseyians abbreviate the turnpike "NJTP." "NJT," which you used in your column, usually refers to the New Jersey Transit, the state's excellent public transportation system.

But you are absolutely right about the Turnpike and about New Jersey: the state suffers unfairly from the fact that the worst part of the state also happens to be the worst part of the nation's largest city and media center. We see New York-based entertainers make references to "New Jersey" as if the whole state is Newark, Elizabeth, Jersey City and other undesirable locales.

Actually, New Jersey has done a great job balancing the needs of industrial development, suburban living and natural preservation. Many people got a good laugh when the governor of NJ was appointed head of the EPA, as if the idea is to turn the whole country into Newark Airport.

There are many people in the western U.S. who would think environmental protections are keeping their states primitive. For them, a New Jersey-style planning approach balancing different needs is the kind of environmentally-sensitive development they're hoping for.

Bob Levey: Many thanks for weighing in, and for the kind words about the column. I've received many e-mails already today from people with excellent observations about how the NJT's image can be rebuilt. Follow-up column coming very soon.

NW D.C.: Bob --

Saw the tiny story buried on page A13 of today's Post saying that, as it turns out, there was no vandalism by Clintonites at the White House during the transition "as unnamed aides to President Bush and other critics had insisted." My question: does the journalistic principle of not revealing sources (such as "unnamed aides to President Bush") ever give way when it becomes clear that the source lied in order to get a story published that would benefit the source?

Bob Levey: No, because the information was accepted from an anonymous source with the full knowledge on the part of the reporter that it might be a lie. Believe me, it happens all the time. The only thing that happens more often is that anonymous sources traffic in self-serving information. This is why it's always so difficult to judge what to do with anonymous info when you're a reporter, editor or columnist. It may very well be right; it may very well be wrong. You have to trust your instincts, when you'd rather trust a corroborating source or the public record. Dicey!

Taxes and energy: Let me see if I understand: We need a tax cut passed soon -- by Memorial Day, if possible -- so that I will pay less in federal tax, or get a bigger refund, next spring/summer, in order to pay for gas that I'm buying this summer. Do I have that right? Does Bush's energy plan include the development of a time machine? Are people really dumb enough to swallow this stuff?

Bob Levey: People are going to stop swallowing when (not if) gas prices climb to $2.50 a gallon.

Washington, Colonial District of Columbia: your advice to the woman's thieving husband was way off. You suggested that she return the property that her husband stole from their place of work. Knowingly receiving stolen property is a crime in and of itself and if anyone at work observed her with it, she may end up being fired or arrested.

The best thing to do is turn the property over to an attorney who would then arrange returning the property to the rightful owner. Most jurisdictions have public defender services that could probably handle this transfer.

Bob Levey: That's good advice. However, I believe the wife could return the stolen machinery without being noticed (couldn't she come in at 7 a.m. when no one is there and just leave it on someone's desk?). So as the saying goes, I stand by my column.

-A- native new jerseyan (not the original): Bob;

LOVED LOVED LOVED your piece on the Turnpike today.. it's about time someone in the media gave a fair and balanced picture of this vital highway.. As a 15-W'er, I've always had to drive thru Elizabeth/Newark Airport/Newark just to go anywhere, but once you're south of exit 11, its actually pretty nice.

I currently live in PA and I gotta tell you, the PA turnpike is a ripoff compared to the NJ turnpike. It costs me nearly 2 dollars to go 25 miles from my exit to the NJ Turnpike, then only costs me 2.10 to go 60 miles on the NJ turnpike.

The other ripoff: the bridges/tolls in MD.. when, oh, when will they install EZPass for those?

Bob Levey: I was in Baltimore last weekend and both tunnels there (Ft. McHenry and Harbor Tunnel do indeed have EZPass).
Thanks very much for your kind words. I can't say I'm brimming with love for the NJT, but you know, when something works as well as it does and as well as it has for all of those millions of people, it can't be as bad as all the comics say.

College Park, Md.: Good Afternoon Bob

About those bikers. I am probably one of biggest proponents of share the road you will ever meet. BUT...when I am carefully watching the two-wheeled idiot come around the left, pass on the right and zoom back in front of two lanes of traffic, THEN run the red light, because "no car is coming"....I sometimes wonder if folks using bikes shouldn't be licensed just like drivers of cars.

Bob Levey: I agree that bikers could use a refresher course in this thought: when they are on the roads, it is as if they are driving a car. They MUST obey the same traffic rules as car drivers. I especially agree about bikers who jump red lights "because no traffic is coming." Do these people have any idea how quickly a car can appear out of nowhere?

Washington, D.C.: In your opinion does television (movies, music, etc.) reflect what's going on in real life? Or does real life reflect what's going on in popular media?

Bob Levey: Neither. Real life is found in only one medium: the newspaper.
Sorry to wave the flag so hard, but it's the truth. TV and radio will always be nudged by entertainment considerations. True, newspapers run photos, maps and catchy headlines. But the story is still king in a serious paper. Not so in any other medium (ESPCIALLY movies--my gosh, anyone who thinks he's seeing reality in a movie had better stop eating all that hallucinogenic popcorn).

Bethesda, Md.: Puck heads on the Bobster chat had to love the game between the Avalanche and Blues the other night. Two overtime thriller, with the Blues winning. The Avalanche (my Children's Hospital team) are up two games to one with game three tonight in St. Louis.

There was actually a fighting major called in game two of this series, so we had our first ten dollar contribution to my campaign. With their wins, the Caps and Avalanche have accounted for 80 bucks so far.

I must say it's been fun adopting another team for the playoffs. Usually when the Caps fall, I watch casually until the finals. However, I want the Avs to go all the way. More wins=more money for Childrens.

Although I probably won't ever convince Bob that hockey is an awesome sport, it's always rewarding and fun helping kids and my little playoff campaign is a neat way to do some good.

Bob Levey: Hey, I like the way this little bet of ours is heading (anything that helps Children's is good, good, good by me). I also like your honesty about the fighting penalty. May I add a little acid commentary of my own?
The night that fight happened, it LED the sports highlight shows. What does that tell you? Sure, that SportsCenter and FoxCenter (or whatever it's called) like video with action in it. But also that hockey is forever linked to violence--that hockey violence is in fact more interesting than hockey itself.

Gallery Place Metro: Office just moved to Gallery Place, and I am appalled at the way people jaywalk here; walk out between cars, against the light, without looking at traffic. My co-workers are terrified they'll hit someone who walks out in front of them. I hate to ask the police to give out jaywalking tickets but what else can be done?

Bob Levey: Nothing else can or should be done. Hang a little paper on the miscreants and you will see major progress (for at least 48 hours!)

Washington, D.C.: Bob - I ride the Blue Line everyday from the Pentagon to Foggy Bottom. It seems that no matter what time I ride the Blue Line, I only get 4 car trains. Where are all the 6 car trains? On top of that, at around 5:30PM, there are usually two (if not more) Orange Line trains (with a total of al least 10 cars) that go by Foggy Bottom before a (surprise) 4 car Blue Line train comes along (packed to capacity, of course). What's up with that? Thanks for all the great writing...

Bob Levey: The Blue and Green Lines have suffered more than any others for the shortage of cars in the Metro system. But help arrives in July. It won't assure you of a six-bagger every time you ride Blue, but your batting average will go up.
Hey, do you think the Bobster has baseball on the brain?
He does.
For a great reason.....
Can you keep a little secret?
An entre-nous job?
WE GOT HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yogi Berra, my boyhood idol, will be our guest on "Levey Live" on June 12!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't care if you're not a seamhead. Yogi is funny, funny, funny--perhaps funnier about non-baseball stuff, in fact.
World's Greatest Producer, Grace Hill-Putnam, just booked Number Eight this morning. I've been uttering small, unintelligible cries of glee ever since.

Re: NJTP: Your column today brought back memories. I lived in NJ for a few years while in high school. After leaving the state, I met many people from NJ and the first question from me/them was always, "Which exit are you from?" I have to say that I do like the NJTP: it's straight and easy. I would rather drive on that than the Beltway any day!

Bob Levey: Didn't that "which exit are you from" question lose its pucker-power after a while? I mean, come on, think of a gag that 3,000,000 people have NOT already used, right? Or is this question one of those New Jerseyisms that has stood the test of time?

Dollar coins: I can't say I'm too surprised the new coins are considered a bust. (I like them for bus fare myself.) I was at the bank this week and asked for a roll of them. None of the tellers had any, and my teller had to go in the back to dig some up. No wonder no one uses them...

Bob Levey: The biggest bust-creator is the fact that they are indistinguishable from quarters. I often fiddle with the change in my pants pocket (without looking at it). One day, my pocket contained three quarters and two one-dollar jobbies. Just for fun, I pretended I was blind. Could I tell which coin was which? I had to work really, really hard to be able to do it.

Washington, D.C.: Um, Bob....did we really need to know that you sleep in the nude?

Bob Levey: I still have my principles. I will not reveal whether it's boxers or briefs

Cubs fan: I guess it was just a matter of time for the Cubs to start hitting the skids, eh? Sigh...hopefully they will win a World Series before the 100th anniversary of their last World Series win (which will be in 2008).

Bob Levey: I knew it was coming, too, and the reason is as time-honored as the annual collapse.
The friendly confines of Wrigley Field.
How would you like to pitch in that park?
It feels as if you're pitching in a phone booth.
Cub pitchers get completely psyched out and serve home run balls as if they're offering sushi at some "do" at the Four Seasons.
Levey's Law: It is very hard to win a baseball game if you keep surrendering home runs.
The Cubbies prove this law, annually.

Washington, D.C.: Oh Bob,
How are you able to ghost write Carol Hax's chat and do this at the same time?

Bob Levey: Amazing how fast I can type with two fingers, ain't it?
Seriously, the Haxster and I are the best of friends, but we are not the same person.

Washington, D.C.: Give me a break, Mr. Car Commuter. Sorry you might have to slow down for 10 seconds to pass me on my bike. At least you don't have to breathe MY fumes or worry about MY 2 tons of steel crashing into you. Do you really think I should have to ride 3 miles out of my way to get to a bike path, and then commute 12 miles more each way to work? I do the same as you do in your car: take the easiest, safest, fastest route I can, and hope to arrive alive.

Bob Levey: Handlebar-dom heard from......

About the Missing Intern: Hi Bob --

Two days ago I was walking through my neighborhood (DuPont Circle, about three blocks from where the young woman lived). I saw a "missing" poster with her photo taped to a bus stop shelter. When I walked past a few hours later, the poster was gone, along with at least one other piece of paper that had been taped to the other side of the glass wall of the shelter. The other poster was orange and I am assuming, was not a "missing" poster. Now, if only one poster was gone, I might have chaulked it up to some jerk ripping down the "missing" poster, but since both posters were gone, I wonder -- does a Metrobus employee periodically remove all material from the bus stops? And if so, shouldn't they be making exceptions for things like the photograph of a young woman who seems to have disappeared a mere three blocks away? I know that Metro folk often join your discussion, so I'm hoping that one of them can tell us if indeed it was a Metro employee who took the poster down. I can understand if Metro has a policy of removing junk from its shelters, but they should be able to tell the difference between a poster advertising (for instance) someone's garage sale, and a poster for a missing person. If it was not a Metro employee who removed the poster, please just send a message to your readers, NOT to remove posters of missing people from public places! The more people who see their photos, the more likely the police are to get some leads. This is especially true about the particular poster in question -- the young lady probably walked past that very spot sometimes, on her way to a shop or a resturant, etc. and someone in the neighborhood might recognize her that way. Thanks for letting me ask my question and vent some irritation.

Bob Levey: Good vent, and normally it's an unnecessary one. Posters such as the one you mention are usually left up. I suspect this case you report was a vandal, not a Metro employee.

Washington, D.C.: Bob,
I sleep in the nude, too. Would you like to join me sometime?

Bob Levey: I guess the HUGE gold wedding ring on the fourth finger of my left hand isn't shiny enough.

Annapolis, Md.: Bob,

If you had to work hard to tell the difference between the dollar and the quarter by feel only, you weren't trying hard at all. The quarter has reeding (the little incuse lines on the side) and the dollar does not. Real blind people pick up on things like that very quickly.

Bob Levey: True enough, and I meant no disrespect to people who are actually blind. But is reeding really enough to distinguish two coins when people live lives as busy as yours and mine? I want real distance between my coins-- at least as much as the distance between a nickel and a dime.

Still Reading in Maryland: Bob, did you see the article in the Post earlier this week about alliteracy in the U.S.? It is disturbing that people now read so little. One point in the article was that many times schools show movies along side books to encourage students to read more. How is that supposed to work? I read a book a week on average and encourage my kids to read, but they aren't interested! The schools don't help by studying Shakespeare by reading "Taming of the Shrew" and then watching "Kiss Me Kate" and "Ten Things I Hate About You"--both movies loosly based on the Shakespeare comedy. How are your kids at reading? What have you done to encourage/bribe them?

Bob Levey: My kids are good about reading, although they could be a lot better.
I think they are both intimidated by the mounds of books that sit on my bedside table and Miss Jane's. But they don't possess that lust to read a book a week, like their parents. I just hope that they (and all kids) will often have that wonderful feeling of losing themselves in a book--not just snacking between the covers, but having a meal (and often an unexpectedly tasty one, at that).
The aliteracy piece in The Post depressed the heck out of me for two days. Among many worries it made me have:
How can colleges not police this better? When college professors permit Internet research instead of research based on books, aren't they flirting with the devil? As for movies in schools, that's the give-up strategy of all time. School shouldn't compete with HBO. It should be an ANTIDOTE to HBO.

Rising gas prices...: There is a gas station near where I live, and underneath the sign that has the prices, the sign says "We apologize for our prices." I chuckle every time I drive by it...

Bob Levey: But they don't apologize hard enough to lower the prices, do they?

Alexandria, Va.: Dollar coin's thicker, too. I've done the same pocket test, and I came up right every time.

Bob Levey: Fair enough, I will try it again soon. But if vending machines don't take the dollar coins, and salesclerks say "What's this?" when you hand them one, hasn't the battle for acceptance been lost already?

EG, D.C.: Oh, dear, please, never again make us envision you sleeping in the buff! The horror, the horror! My sympathies to the long-suffering Mrs. Levey.

Bob Levey: She has had my sympathies for quite some time, for many reasons. Not to put too fine a point on this, but whenever I wear pajamas, I get so hot that I have to rip them off in the middle of the night. So why not save a step (not to mention two articles of clothing that would otherwise need to be washed)?

Laurel, Md.: I met someone at some social event who said she was from New Jersey. I asked from where in New Jersey? She said Exit 31. Now me being from Chicago and never having driven the New Jersey Turnpike, I had to ask exactly where that is...I guess for some folks old habits never die, eh?

Bob Levey: I doubt that she said Exit 31, because there ain't no such

Washington, D.C.: Given your manipulation on my question about the Post's correction policy, during your last talkback, doesn't NW DC's question also point to poor corrections in your paper. Namely, the fact that you buried the fact that a front page lead was false months later, on page A-13?

Note, I doubt you'll have the integrity to post this either.

Bob Levey: Well, you just lost that bet about my integrity, didn't you?
This poster refers to an e-mail exchange he and I have been having over the last few days. It began with a question he fired at Fred Hiatt, editor of The Post's editorial page, during my Tuesday show.
The question went on for several paragraphs, and concerned one error in one column on one day. When I asked Fred a question about corrections policy in general, and he answered it, this poster accused me of heisting his question and turning it into one of my own.
For his information (and yours), I prepare a long list of questions and subject areas before each Tuesday show. The issue of corrections policy was on that list long before his question came down the pike.
The Post's corrections policy is very clear: We will run corrections of errors. We will run them on page A-2 most days. Once in a while, a correction might appear as a follow-up news story (the case with the Clinton damage story of the other day).
None of this is a conspiracy or an attempt to hide from our sins. Who knows better than we that the integrity of this newspaper is precious, and endangered by errors that are never corrected?

Washington, D.C.: Here's a question for the Metro Media Relations office, who I've seen periodically on this discussion:

Several weeks ago I boarded a bus in Georgetown. After I sat down a man paid his fare and went to sit. The driver jumped up and told him to get off because he smelled. Granted I didn't get a whiff myself, but the man certainly wasn't being disruptive or anything. He pleaded with the bus driver to let him stay, but the driver took him by arm and firmly led him off the bus. The poor man had tears in his eyes--it was pretty humiliating.

My question is whether the bus driver was correct in doing this. The man had paid his fare. And no, I didn't get the driver name.

Just wondering. Thanks.

Bob Levey: You Metro Medianiks on board today?

Vienna, Va.: Hey Bob...I like your response to the invitation you got to share a bed with another nude sleeper. It puts you at least one step above Bill Clinton....which still may not be saying much.

Bob Levey: Just one step? I like to think it's more like 101.

Laurel, Md.: Here's an idea so you don't have to sleep in the nude...open the window. The nights have been pretty chilly as of late. I'm freezing when I get up in the morning!

Bob Levey: I tried opening the window on Monday night, I think it was. Jane the Perpetual Trophy Wife didn't make it past 1 a.m. She nudged me and said if I really loved her, I'd get up and close it.
I really loved her.

Somewhere, USA: Bob, you are the Haxster, in reality!
Slow typing today ,just like her

Bob Levey: Nope, just a server that has hardening of the arteries.

Alexandria, Va.: Bob,

I just wanted to stick up for the retail employees that have been getting consistently bashed in your column and discussion the past two weeks, particularly Target. My husband is a manager in retail and comes home almost every day with a new story about some horrid customer. People these days are so self-absorbed and self-righteous that they don't know how to treat anyone anymore. I can't tell you how many times my husband has been cursed at and called names. He can't control the overall company policy, he can't control inventory, and he certainly can't control the behavior of other customers. Everyone should have to work retail for a short time to realize how pathetic they treat others, then they might learn how to behave. By the way...Target has their return policy posted right at customer service and on receipts. It states that you must have a receipt for all returns. There shouldn't have to be special rules for some people simply because they spend less money.

Bob Levey: I am TOTALLY sympathetic to people like your husband who have to endure that kind of nonsense. But that doesn't change the fact that Target's policies are wooden and rotten.

Re: the Wizards coach: Doug Collins can turn teams around. He turned the Bulls from a sub-.500 Jordan Show into a feared presence in the playoffs (although the addition of Scottie Pippen helped). He turned the Pistons from a post-Isaiah disaster into a playoff team (although the addition of Grant Hill helped). Give him quality players, and he'll show us something; his only detraction is that some people say he's too intense, more so than most of his players.

Bob Levey: Amen to all of this. But which quality players will he be getting? Will Michael be the same old Michael, if indeed he comes back? And if Michael does come back, who will play alongside him? Don't tell me "any four current Wizards," please. Even Michael knows that no one on the roster at the end of this season can cut the mustard.

North Potomac, Md.: Bob: after reading your column the other day about the driver of the Lincoln who napped at traffic lights. I don't see anything wrong with that... I do it all the time. In fact, I can fall asleep at anytime and any place. Just be glad we can do it with our foot on the break and not while we need to be aware.

Bob Levey: Just remind me to be in the next county when you start nodding off.

Oakton, Va.: Any truth to the story that Clinton is now seeing a 47-year old woman who has been married 4 times? Haven't seen much in the Post about this. If it's true, I'll bet Hillary dumps him for sure this time.

Bob Levey: It's strictly super-market checkout-line stuff at the moment. But so was Gennifer Flowers at first.
I'd love to be able to say that Clinton couldn't be that stupid.
I can't say it.

Metro rider (sigh): Bob, let me share my Metro story with your chatters. Tuesday afternoon at the Fort Totten stop, I found myself surrounded by a pretty typical group of field trippers from some private church school. They looked to be about 8 or 9, and of course the little boys were jumping around and poking each other, but the chaperones seemed to have some control. Then we got on the train which was really pretty full. One of the "adults" then prompted the kids to start singing some church tune at the top of their lungs. ARRRRRRGH! NO, people, that's not how it's done. Have some consideration for the folk around you, okay? And teach the kids to have some consideration, too; that would be a really good outcome for the field trip!

Bob Levey: Very similar (in principle, anyway) to the column I wrote a couple of months ago about the man who sings hymns aboard the trains. I was against that, and I'm against this, too. Metro should never be a place to inflict your own religious views on anyone else.

New York, N.Y.: Aaaaaaugh!!! -Please- spell check (manually, like we used to do in the good old days, by gum) before posting and advise your readers to do the same. Normally I wouldn't twit you on this but on a post dealing with illiteracy, -both- you and the reader to whom you responded misspelled it! (And two different ways, at that!)

Bob Levey: I beg to differ.
Illiteracy means being unable to read.
Aliteracy means being able to read, and choosing not to do it.

Fairfax, Va.: Re Aliteracy in our schools
I just finished a two-year stint teaching college English, and it is indeed a pain to try to teach students that just because something is on the internet, it is not necessarily reliable. The confusion comes because so many sources are online now--and we don't require them to learn the difference between legitimate and not, by and large.
Biggest problem? Students who cheat and plagiarize. The UVA-Silver Spring messes highlight what I think is the biggest problem in our schools and universities. Cheating positively rampant at the universities, and many of them do not support institutional policies that require stiff punishments. Every cheater I had was able to pass my course by university policy. Sickening.

Bob Levey: Any top university official who caves to plagiarism should be fired. No ifs, ands or buts. I'm just amazed to hear your news--but maybe I shouldn't be.

Gaithersburg, Md.: Re: lady whose husband stole computer equipment from work.

I still don't understand your advice for her to just bring in the stuff and put it on "someone's" desk. That "someone" is going to look like the guilty party, and that just doesn't seem right.

If I came in to work and discovered equipment that had been missing sitting on my desk, I'd think someone was trying to set me up. It would be my word against my bosses that I didn't take it in the first place. That's just not fair, Bob!

Bob Levey: OK, then maybe she should bring the stuff in and set it against the wall. I didn't intend to implicate an innocent fellow worker.

Washington, D.C.: I have been contacting the Dept. of Public Works for at least 10 years just trying to get the sidewalk and street under the underpasses cleaned -- particularly the ones on 4th St. Southwest, but to no avail. All I get is: its the City's resposibility, the City says its the Highway's responsibility -- where do I go to now for some help and cleanup

Bob Levey: A City Council member would be a good place to start. Allegedly, these folks can get results from city departments.
Allegedly.

Laurel, Md.: One other thing you didn't mention about the NJTP:

The left-most lane of the truck/bus half of the split is reserved for the exclusive use of buses during rush hour. Gets commuters to the NYPA terminal with minimal delays (usually).

Sounds like something that would make Bob Levey smile.

Bob Levey: Sure would.
Sure did.

Washington, D.C.: Bob,

Since when is it an energy "crisis" just because the cost of power went up? True, California's got problems, but the rest of us are OK.

I still remember the lines around the block at gas stations, odd/even days, etc. THAT was an energy crisis.

And seeing how that impacted Jimmy Carter's reelection chances, how do you think this will impact next year's mid-term elections?

Bob Levey: I'd say that Bush is already in serious trouble on this issue.
A lot of it is unfair, to be sure. He has been president only four months. He has barely dented the policy world yet.
However, people vote on the basis of what riles them. Rolling blackouts and $2.50 gas prices will rile them in a big way.
Meanwhile, Bush has a totally tin ear for the environmental concerns of voters. And I'm not just talking about tree-huggers who wear Birkenstocks and live in northern Maine. As I said on WTOP radio yesterday, the second some idiot dips a shovel into that preserve in Alaska, there is going to be a HOWL in this country. How would you like to be a Republican running for re-election when that howl goes up?

Washington, D.C.: Hey, Bob,
Now that 'Hax' has signed off early it seems like you are speeding up. Hmmm.

Bob Levey: Maybe our server is like a truck. Offload a little weight and it goes faster.
Nothing personal, Carolyn.

Washington, D.C.: Ok Bob, I admit it, I am a Metro geek just like you. But I HATE taking the bus and will drive to avoid it. Why? Because it is never, ever, ever on schedule! And when it does come, it often comes in groups of two or three (meaning there is a holdup somewhere that causes buses to travel in packs). Also, drivers never make people step to the back so if the bus seems full because everyone is clustered standing in front, it drives right past my stop, making me wait some more. What does Metro propose to do about this? I am sure that I am not the only one who hates the bus for this reason.

Bob Levey: You are very right that certain routes (usually on busy major highways) are perpetually off schedule. I can't see a solution to this, except a little more patience than you're showing. If you drove a car, you might be pushed off shcedule by traffic, too. What's the difference?
As for drivers who don't ask people to move back, I'm with you 300 percent. But let's spread the blame around. How many times have you seen drivers ask people to move back--and they don't? Indefensible!

THE Native New Jerseyan (from the travel discussion): Thanks for today's column, Bob. I was born in Teaneck, grew up in River Edge, and have been teased for being from New Jersey. Now it's cool to be from the Garden State, because of Sopranos, Cape May, Avalon, Hoboken pub crawling etc.
We used to come down the NJTP to visit my aunt and uncle in Calvert County. I will always equate HoJo's peppermint ice cream with the Turnpike.
I'll be going up the turnpike next weekend to go to the Iris Festival in Bordentown, can't wait.
Thanks for the positive press!!

Bob Levey: I always look for the bright side, even if I sometimes can't find it because it's stalled behind an overturned tractor-trailer on ther Capital Beltway.

Alexandria, VA: What scared me about the story on how we don't read much is that the graduate student in the story actually seemed proud of the fact that he read only the bare minimum to get by.

Bob Levey: I can only hope that he tries to get tenure at a university some day--and that the roof falls in on him.

Arlington, Va.: Bob -- the days of being amazed at colleges and universities tolerating cheating and plagarism are long gone. When I was graduate student more than 10 years ago at Stanford, one of my friends who was TAing a course clearly determined that a student had stolen somebody else's work in a term paper. When my friend went to the department head and asked for the student to be disciplined, the department head said that under the school's honor code, only the student or one his fellow students could bring such a complaint. My friend was then told to drop the matter and pass the student, and never to bring up a similar situation again (if he did, he was warned he would be subject to disciplinary action).

Bob Levey: With what higher ed costs these days, you'd think this trend would swing around, so that the integrity of degrees would be protected. That makes too much sense, I guess

Bob Levey: Thanks, gang, for a sprightly hour. Be sure to return next Friday, at 1 p.m. Eastern, when we'll chase sprightliness once more.

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