Sparse Easter offerings

• Mutant bedbugs! Not just for the Third World any more! Although in many ways, America seems eager to join the Third World. More on that later.
  
• Are Chicago's historic buildings losing their souls to become shells for modernist swill? Or are they being appropriated for new works of art in the way of mash-up culture? I'm not really sure. The Trib seems to have made up its mind anyways.
• I was going to write my song of the week bit today, but it's too late. It'll be on "Surprise, Honeycomb" by The Wrens. I'll probably do it tomorrow.
• How much compensation should an ex-spy get from his government? I guess it's hard to say. After all, serving your country, you probably should've been doing it out of duty and not money. At the same time, it's pretty dangerous to have your spies be low-paid.
• All traffic woes solvable... as long as you're willing to pay. Everyone complains about the traffic, but are there bigger problems? Maybe not in L.A. Still, in a country that actually has the resources to implement large-scale infrastructure changes (unlike, say, the Philippines, which can do little to nothing about Manila's day-long traffic jams), maybe we should work to become more efficient. But as time has shown, the wider you make the roads, the more full they become. Every gridlock fix we have inevitably led to more gridlock.
• I don't think the Brits selling their stories is that out of line. Their government didn't protect them in hostile waters, sending them out in a glorified dinghy into a disputed border zone, at a time when Iranians were being rounded up in Iraq by the barrelful.
• Finally, to round things off, via Dave Barry, a heart-warming story about the true meaning of Easter. Wait, not that one. This one.