"WELL, HERE'S ANOTHER NICE MESS YOU'VE GOTTEN ME IN"
Copyrighted 2008 by Robert J. Tinsky, Guest Essayist, Oblong, Illinois
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Those of us who have been "around the block" more than a few times will remember the title of this essay as probably the most famous line of the comedians Stan Laurel and Ollie Hardy.  The team entertained people from all over the world with their humorous antics from 1920 to 1950. They made 106 movies during their long career.
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The words quoted in the title of this essay were first used in the film "The Movie Case" produced in 1930. They were later used in the movie "The Fixer Uppers" in 1935. In at least two of their later films they made a hilarious change in this famous line when Ollie said to Stan, "Well, here's another nice kettle of fish you pickled me in."
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Enough of the history about these two famous comedians. What I want to say in this brief essay is that the leaders of our financial institutions and of our federal government have gotten our nation in another mess. Or to paraphrase the words of Laurel and Hardy we could say "here's another nice kettle of fish you pickled our nation in."
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I am wondering if we have not had too many "Laurel's and Hardy's" in charge of our financial institutions and our government. Isn't it time we kicked out all the knuckleheads and replaced them with people with some genuine business sense.Â
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You can study the background of this whole mess and soon discover there is plenty of blame to pass around. From what I have been able to ascertain it started with some stupid government policies that violated some basic principles of economics. We are told that greed is one of the basic causes of the problem. Greed certainly made the problem worse, but in my opinion it was because we had too many "Laurel's and Hardy's" in charge. Like those two comedians they bungled the way our financial system is supposed to work. All I can say to these "comedians" in charge of our government and financial institutions is "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten us in."Â

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WELL, Bob, you've made it short but not so sweet. It certainly is a prayer of many that our country can work their way through this crisis, however it might involve re-teaching an awful lot of people that lesson us old-timers had to learn years ago--knowing the different between "wants" and "needs". THE WORDWRIGHT